


Fractured

by anaceattorney



Series: Please get these children therapy [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Incompetent adults, So much plotting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 83,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22931821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaceattorney/pseuds/anaceattorney
Summary: Naruto was loud, brash, never did his homework, and couldn't control his chakra to save his life, but he was Shikamaru’s friend. And Shikamaru would not stand by while his friend was hurt. Now he just had to get the rest of their classmates in on his plan.Companion to my Iruka-was-raised-in-Sand au, dealing with the fall-out of Iruka's absence in Naruto's life.
Relationships: Akimichi Chouji & Nara Shikamaru & Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba & Uzumaki Naruto, Nara Shikamaru & Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee & Tenten & Naruto, Rookie Nine & Uzumaki Naruto
Series: Please get these children therapy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632886
Comments: 329
Kudos: 641
Collections: Different and interesting stories, NarutoFavs





	1. Shikamaru

Shikamaru was smart. He knew this and so did everyone around him. His clan was known for their intellect (and for their laziness). By the time he was five, he could beat most of the adults he knew at shogi. His father was a different matter entirely, but Shikamaru had accepted that, for now. He knew when two people started dating based on their body language and mannerisms. Although he hardly ever did his homework, he never felt behind or uncertain in class. At least about the material being taught. However, there was one thing he could never figure out no matter how hard he tried.

“Sensei, let me try one more time,” a pleading voice jolted Shikamaru out of his introspection. At the front of the class, Naruto was attempting to answer a basic chakra control problem. Based on the scribbles on the board, he had already tried at least four times and was getting further and further from the correct answer each time. Their teacher, Mizuki, looked down his nose at Naruto before putting on a fake smile and instructing him to go sit down, that he would get it someday.

Naruto glumly slouched back to his seat. Of course, his mood did a complete one-eighty when Sasuke was called upon to answer the question he had been attempting and answered it perfectly on his first try. Naruto promptly started jumping up and down and screaming that he’d beat Sasuke while the other boy ignored him. This was a disturbingly familiar sight in their classroom so everyone just tried to tune him out. 

As school let out, most students ran to meet with their families. Shikamaru knew Choji’s dad was picking both of them up today since his dad had a meeting with the Hokage, so he leisurely made his way to their agreed-upon meeting place to the side of the main gate. As he observed the chaos around him, he noticed Naruto near another student in their class and her mom. The girl had dropped something and Naruto reached over to pick it up and hand it back to her. The mom initially turned with a smile, probably meaning to thank the boy, however as soon as she saw who it was, she yanked the item out of Naruto’s hand and pulled her daughter away quickly. As they hurried past Shikamaru, he heard the woman say, “Promise me that you’ll stay away from that boy. He’s nothing but troubled.” What confused Shikamaru the most was that way she said it. She sounded angry like he expected, but she also sounded scared. Shikamaru had no idea what Naruto could have done to make her so frightened of him. The only reasons to be scared of Naruto are that he might blow out your eardrums with all his yelling or he might dump a bucket of paint on you. Neither of those warranted the reactions most villagers had to Naruto.

It was the one problem Shikamaru could never figure out. Everyone treated Naruto like he was some vicious beast that might attack them at any time and indeed, already had. There was fear, but also loathing and resentment. It annoyed Shikamaru to no end that he couldn’t figure it out. He had tried eavesdropping for information, but it was like the Hokage had issued a proclamation telling the village never to speak about the matter because he never overheard anything useful. He had finally gotten fed up and asked his parents, but they wouldn’t tell him anything either. His mom defaulted to the ever-annoying, I’ll tell you when you're older.

At least his dad had given him a straight-forward answer, “I cannot tell you. But that is no reason for you not to hang out with Naruto, despite what the rest of the village thinks.”

After that, his mom had started packing him a bigger lunch. Shikamaru instantly understood her intent and invited Naruto to eat with him. The blond never had his own lunch, but Shikamaru was easily able to manipulate him into eating without Naruto figuring out what was happening. Choji helped with that since he would also take part of Shikamaru’s lunch.

Honestly, Naruto was a little too easy to manipulate for Shikamaru’s comfort. He could always distract the other boy by referencing Sasuke and Naruto would launch into a passionate speech about how he would beat the dark-haired boy and become the Hokage. Naruto soaked up companionship and positive reinforcement like a sponge, but always tried to hide it when he felt sad. It further annoyed Shikamaru that many of their classmates had adopted the attitude the adults held toward Naruto and tried not to associate with him and if they did talk to him, it was just to mock him. 

Although Shikamaru wouldn’t admit it out loud, he considered Naruto a friend worth going out of his way for. Although sometimes it was rather troublesome, Shikamaru knew it was necessary. There was no one else who would look out for Naruto so he would have to do the best he could. He had originally hoped that their teacher would help Naruto, but it quickly became obvious the Mizuki hated Naruto just as much as, if not more than, the rest of the village. He just hid it better. So no help on that front. Naruto didn’t have parents or a guardian. He had lived at the orphanage but it seemed like he now had his own apartment, which was a terrible idea. How he fed himself Shikamaru had no idea. Shikamaru had followed him back to the orphanage a few times and while the caretakers there alternated between yelling at Naruto for every little thing he did or out-right ignoring him, did seem to have a couple friends- a boy with outrageous eyebrows who was at least as loud as Naruto and a girl with brown hair who always seemed to have a sharp object on hand. They would save food for the blond when they could and talk to him. Now Naruto was all alone and seemed to have no clue how to take care of himself.

So Shikamaru came up with a plan. It wasn’t as comprehensive as his plans usually were because he lacked a lot of necessary information and capabilities. But it was all he had. Naruto obviously needed people to help him. He was loud, brash, never did his homework, and couldn't control his chakra to save his life, but he was Shikamaru’s friend. And Shikamaru would not stand by while his friend was hurt. So this was really his only option.

The first part of the plan involved swaying the other children in their class to have more favorable views of Naruto. Sadly, Shikamaru knew he could not accomplish this plan on his own. Most of their classmates alternated between being in awe of his answers and being annoyed at his laziness. Figuring out how to manipulate them all into being nicer to Naruto was too much effort. Instead, he went to someone who could command their classmates. This was going to be such a troublesome conversation, he complained internally, but it would save energy in the long run, if everything went according to plan.

Pushing open the door to the flower shop, he greeted Ino’s dad who was sorting flowers at the counter.

“Afternoon, Shikamaru. I’m surprised you dragged yourself out of the house on a Saturday,” Inoichi teased. “Are you looking for Ino?”

Shikamaru made a face at the man’s teasing before nodding. “Alright, she’s out in the second greenhouse harvesting. You can meet her there or wait until she gets back since it shouldn’t be too long.”

“I’ll go there,” Shikamaru decided, trying not to appear too eager. The greenhouses were pretty much sound-proof and would give Ino and him the chance to have a private conversation without having to worry about explaining why they needed to or worrying about eavesdroppers. Inoichi seemed surprised that Shikamaru was voluntarily walking more than necessary but thankfully didn’t question him further before waving him on.

Shikamaru slouched towards the second greenhouse, internally delighted to discover that Ino was alone and not done with her harvesting yet. 

“Shikamaru,” Ino yelled out when she saw him, “I didn’t expect you today. Did we have plans?” she asked, pushing a bucket towards the boy so he could help her.

Shikamaru took the bucket with minimal grumbling and picked a few flowers, organizing his thoughts one final time.

Before he could start, however, Ino had pushed her way into his space, feeling his forehead, and fretting over him. “Are you dying? You don’t feel sick. Am I dying? Is Choji dying? Is the village about to be attacked and then we’ll all die?”

“Ino, calm down. No one is dying,” Shikamaru had to raise his voice to snap her out of her muttering. “Why would you think something is wrong?”

Ino leveled him a very unimpressed look. “You intentionally sought me out when you could be napping or watching clouds. I’m sure you went to the shop first and then you chose to walk all the way here when I’m sure my dad told you I would be back soon. You actually helped me without saying anything about it being bothersome and you hesitated before you spoke. I’ve known you since birth, Shikamaru. I know when something is wrong with you.”

Shikamaru did have to concede she had a point and he was acting out of character. He just hoped no one else noticed. However, Ino (for better or worse) knew him better than pretty much anyone else, except Choji. He was probably alright. 

“I promise that I am fine,” Shikamaru assured her. “However, there is something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Ino put down her bucket and pulled Shikamaru to the back of the shop where there were crates they could sit on. “I’m all ears. Tell me what’s bothering you,” she instructed.

Shikamaru took a deep breath and decided to go with a direct approach, “What is your opinion of Naruto?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back! Here is the fic I promised following Naruto's life without Iruka.
> 
> I chose to write this fic alternating between many characters' points of view for a couple of reasons. One, I tried writing this fic purely from Naruto's pov and it just wasn't working. Naruto is such a hard character to write because he is so deep in denial about how much the villagers' actions hurt him so writing from others' pov allowed me to really show the effect this treatment had on him. Don't worry, we will get Naruto's perspective eventually. Two, no single person can fill the role Iruka did in Naruto's life. He protected him, bought him food, yelled at higher-ups for him, and most importantly believed he would succeed. His position as Naruto's teacher and his personality allowed him to help Naruto in ways no one else could. I firmly believed Iruka's presence in Narut's life is irreplaceable. So I didn't try to have one person provide everything Iruka did to Naruto. Instead, I wanted to focus more on multiple individuals helping in their own ways.
> 
> I started with Shikamaru because he is the planner of the Rookie Nine but also because I feel like he would be the most likely to actually step in. In canon, he doesn't do much even though it's clear he cares about Naruto. It seems to me that he left taking care of Naruto to Iruka because (1) Iruka was better able to do so and (2) Shikamaru is lazy and won't do work if someone else could do it for him. But here, no one will step in to help Naruto so Shikamaru feels the need to.
> 
> Anyway, that's my way too long explanation for this. Please leave kudos and comments if you enjoy it!


	2. Ino

Ino’s dad always told her she worried too much. But she couldn’t help it! Shikamaru was just so lazy and Choji was so shy that without her looking out for them, who knew what they would do? Their families were friends and she’d known them her entire life, so she had to make sure they were alright. (Plus her dad had zero room to talk when it came to worrying too much-she’d caught him going to the greenhouses in the middle of the night to talk to the flowers because he was quote, “Concerned they were feeling lonely and wouldn’t grow well.”)

So when Shikamaru came into the greenhouse on a Saturday afternoon, she knew something was wrong. Shikamaru was far too lazy to go out of his way to find her if he didn’t have to. Plus, it was the first time she'd seen him hesitate before speaking. He was too smart for his own good, always planned way too far ahead, and had the right words. Maybe assuming someone was going to die was a little drastic, but Ino felt her response was justified.

Ino still didn’t quite believe him when he promised he was fine but decided to hear him out before dragging him off to the hospital or back to her dad so he could get inside Shikamaru’s head to see what was going on. Ino wasn’t sure what this was about, but nothing prepared her for the question, “What is your opinion of Naruto?”

“Huh,” she responded. “What’s that got to do with what’s wrong with you?”

“Could you just answer the question?” Shikamaru snarked back, muttering about troublesome girls under his breath.

Ino punched him in the shoulder, hard, for that remark before considering the question, “Well he’s loud and kind of annoying and he thinks he can beat Sasuke when he obviously can’t.” Sasuke was the coolest. He was good at everything and so cute. Sakura liked him too, which meant he must be truly special since Sakura was the cutest and sweetest girl Ino had ever met. “Other than that, I don’t give him much thought. Why?”

“What do you think about how the rest of the village treats him?” Shikamaru asked instead of answering her question.

This one was harder to answer. “I never really thought much about it.” Ino hardly saw Naruto outside of the academy and when she did, it was only briefly. “Is there a point to all this or did you just wake up today and decide you wanted to find out more about Naruto?” Even as she asked, Ino knew nothing was that simple with Shikamaru. 

“Don’t you think something is wrong?” Shikamaru asked again.

Ino was starting to get annoyed with all these non-answers. “With Naruto? Not unless you mean every answer he gives in class.”

“No, not with Naruto himself, but with the way everyone treats him,” Shikamaru pressed.

Ino wanted to demand where all this was coming from but forced herself to calm down and really think about Shikamaru was asking.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Most people in the class aren’t very fond of him but he’s so loud and annoying. He doesn’t have any skills but he constantly says he’ll beat Sasuke and become the Hokage!” Ino’s rant progressively grew louder as it went on. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt defensive.

Shikamaru sighed and gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher. “Just think about what I’ve said and maybe pay more attention next time you see Naruto in the marketplace. Anyway, I’ve got some clouds to watch. I’ll see you later.” With Shikamaru left, leaving Ino confused and delayed in her task.

“I’m back,” she called out as she reentered the shop.

“Welcome back,” her father called out from behind the counter. “Did you get everything?”

“Of course,” Ino responded. While her task was to pick many types of flowers, she was only to bring a few of each kind back to the shop now so they could experiment with different arrangements to figure out which ones looked the best. 

After sorting in relative silence for a few minutes, her father asked, “Did Shikamaru find you?”

“Yes, he interrupted my work and didn’t even help that much!” Ino complained. “Now he’s off watching clouds.”

“Did you two fight?” Her father asked.

Ino internally berated herself for not preparing for that question. Her father was best friends with Shakamaru’s dad, who Shikamaru is basically a copy of. Of course, he picked up on her friend’s unusual behavior. “No, he just wanted to talk to me about something,” she answered evasively, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him.

“Alright, I won’t pry,” her father promised. “Just know that you can talk to me if something is troubling you.” He pulled her into a one-armed hug before going back to the arrangements.

Ino considered taking him up on his offer. Shikamaru was just being so confusing. But at the same time, she felt like this was something she had to figure out for herself since she was the one Shikamaru, who never asked for others’ opinions, had approached. Besides, the way he talked about Naruto made it seem like there was obviously something going on. Ino could tackle this problem by herself.

Ino got her chance earlier than she expected. That evening, her father asked her to run to the market to pick up ingredients he had forgotten. As she was walking there, she noticed Naruto was headed in the same direction. She decided to observe him when they reached the market. She only needed to buy a few vegetables so she had time to spare. Although she couldn’t take too long or her father would get worried and come looking for her. He was way too overprotective.

Keeping an eye on the crowd, she noticed most people avoided Naruto. Some parents even dragged their children out of his path. That was… definitely odd. Ino furrowed her brow. Did this always happen and she just hadn’t noticed it before? Shaking off her thoughts she hurried after Naruto, curious about what else she would see. 

Naruto approached one of the booths. Ino knew the owner. Her name was Kaede and she was really nice. She always told Ino jokes and gave her discounts. Her father told her she probably reminded Kaede of her own daughter, a shinobi who had been killed years ago. She was one of the nicest people Ino had ever met. 

“Hey Granny, can I get some of your fish?” Naruto yelled.

“No, I’m all out for today. Move along,” Kaede snapped back at him. Naruto seemed used to getting this response because he just stuck out his tongue at her and ran to the next booth where a similar interaction occurred. Ino was stunned. She had never heard Kaede talk to anyone like that. And wasn’t it too early in the evening for her to be out of anything?

Ino hesitantly approached the stand. “Ah Ino,” Kaede smiled as she caught sight of her, “how are you doing this fine evening? Is your father making you get whatever he forgot, again?”

“I’m good,” Ino responded. “Yes, we are missing a few things for dinner.” Ino relaxed since Kaede was behaving as she always had. Maybe she was just making a big deal out of nothing? “I need some carrots and greens.” Deciding to check just for her peace of mind, “And do you have any fish?” Ino desperately tried to sound casual.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of vegetables and yes I have quite a few fish left. Just kept them in back so they wouldn’t stink up the place,” Kaede laughed. “What kind are you looking for?”

Ino’s mind went completely blank. But then why would Kaede lie to Naruto?

“Ino?” Kaede waved her hand in front of the girl’s face. “You alright?”

Ino plastered on a smile, “Yes, sorry just tired from harvesting today. Can I have a tuna?”

“Coming right up,” Kaede responded.

Paying Kaede and gathering up her purchases, Ino hurried towards where she had last seen Naruto. Luckily, he just seemed to be going down the line of vendors so she caught up with him quickly. But once he was within her sight, she wasn’t quite sure what to do. Should she just give him the fish? Did he even like tuna? This was going to be so awkward. It’s not like they were friends or even talked outside of school. She was regretting her impulsive decision now. But it’s not like she could just bring the fish home or else her dad would know something was up since he only sent her for vegetables and he always noticed when she lied to him. Maybe she could just give the fish to some cats? But that was a waste of a whole tuae. Besides, Naruto needed it more than cats did. 

Making up her mind, Ino waited until Naruto had left the market and they were out of the sight of most of the villagers before yelling, “Naruto, wait up.”

“Huh, Ino, what are you doing? Isn’t your house the opposite way? Are you lost? That’s a pretty stupid thing to do since you’ve lived here your whole life.” Naruto stared at her.

Ino clamped down on her temper. This is why she didn’t want to talk to him-he’s so annoying. But she started this so she might as well finish it. Deciding to ignore his idiotic questions she just thrust the fish at him, “Here. I saw you were looking for fish.”

Naruto eagerly took it, “Wow. A whole tuna. How’d you get that? They always seem to be out no matter what time of day I go. It’s super annoying,” he pouted.

Ino barely held herself back from pulling him into a hug. It seemed like this happened to him all the time but apparently it never even occurred to him that the vendors were lying to him. She couldn’t bring herself to burst his bubble. “Just got lucky I guess. They must have brought in a new catch just before I got there. And here,” she shoved a few vegetables at him too.

Naruto wrinkled his nose, “But vegetables are gross.”

Ino now had to hold herself back from whacking him over the head, “They’re necessary for your health, you idiot. How are you still alive if you don’t eat vegetables?” she muttered under her breath. When Naruto still wouldn’t take them, she tried a different approach. “Aren’t you the one who is always yelling that you’re going to be the Hokage? I know Lord Third eats vegetables at every meal. Guess you’ll never grow as strong as him.” It was a laughingly obvious manipulation, but Naruto fell for it.

“Give me those,” Ino happily handed the vegetables over. “I’m going to be the strongest, just you watch. Anyway, bye Ino. See you at school.” The boy ran off, still shouting about being the Hokage.

Ino shook her head, laughing to herself before realizing she needed to get back before her father sent out a search party. Hurrying back, she burst through the front gate just as her father was about to leave.

“Ino, where have you been. I’ve been worried. How long does it take to buy some vegetables from the market?” Ino put up with his fussing with grace. He was so overprotective. She could take care of herself! But that was not an argument she was going to win with him yet.

“Sorry, Dad, I ran into a classmate and got distracted. But I got everything we needed and am perfectly alright.” Ino put on her most innocent smile, hoping the half-truth would be enough for him.

“Hpmh. Fine, fine. Just next time consider your poor dad’s feeling alright?” Ino rolled her eyes but promised.

After eating dinner, Ino begged her dad to let her run over to Shikamaru’s house. She told him she wanted to resolve their disagreement before school the next day and threw in her best pout for good measure. He caved rather quickly, although he did make her promise to be home in an hour or he would come to get her. 

That should be enough time, Ino thought as she dashed towards the Nara lands. She banged on the door of Shikamaru’s house.

“Ino?” Shikamaru’s mother asked when she opened the door, “What are you doing here at this time?”

“Pardon the intrusion, I just needed to talk with Shikamaru quickly. Is he home?” Ino asked, anxious to have this conversation.

“Of course. Where else would he be? He’s lazing around in his room, like usual. Would you like some tea?”

“No thank you,” Ino declined. “I promised my dad I would be back soon.”

Yoshino laughed, well aware of how protective Inochi was over his only child. “Well, I won’t hold you up any longer than.”

Ino thanked her and hurried back to Shikamaru’s room, knocking once before entering. 

As she suspected, Shikamaru was laying on his bed. She wasted no time in going over and throwing herself next to him. “Get up, lazy bones, we need to talk.”

He yawned once and begrudgingly opened his eyes. “Ino, what are you doing here?”

“I ran into Naruto in the marketplace. He-They-,” she didn't know quite what she wanted to say. But looking into Shikamaru’s eyes she knew she did not need to explain any further. He had probably seen far more than she had. “It’s not right,” she finished.

“No, it’s not. And none of the adults seem to care enough to fix it,” Shikamaru agreed. Ino realized he was right. There had been lots of shinobi and civilian adults nearby but none of them had protested what happened. In fact, thinking back, none of them seemed to have any sympathy for Naruto.

Never one to waste time, Ino asked, “So what are we going to do about it?”

Shikamaru dropped into his thinking pose and grinned, “I was hoping you were going to ask that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are turning out to have such variable lengths.
> 
> I hope I didn't create the impression that Ino is a bad person. I think it's perfectly natural for her to assume that adults treat all children the way they treat her and base her opinions on that assumption. But once she realizes something is wrong, she becomes an overprotective older sister for her friends. And yes, I did sneak in a hint of Sakura/Ino.
> 
> Honestly, it's going to take a little while before Naruto himself actually plays a large role in the story. Right now, I'm just trying to set the scene and show various characters' opinions. But I swear, we will center him eventually.


	3. Kiba

Naruto smelled weird. There were the usual smells- metal, food, dirt- that all kids had, but Naruto smelled like something more. Everyone had their own unique scent, but it was like Naruto had two. The extra scent was faint like it was somehow contained but very powerful. It smelled like a predator. It drove Kiba crazy because he couldn’t quite figure out what it was. He had asked his mom about it, but she was no help.

“Don’t worry about it, squirt,” she told him. “Naruto’s not going to hurt you.”

Kiba scoffed. He knew that. Naruto was his friend and despite his trouble-making ways, he went out of his way to ensure that his pranks didn’t actually hurt anyone. That was not Kiba’s concern. “But the weird smell won’t hurt Naruto? And how is he going to get dogs to like him if he smells like that?” This was Kiba’s chief concern. Naruto would adore the puppies they had right now and he was Kiba’s only friend who would be willing to run around with them all afternoon. Shikamaru was too lazy, Choji would get hungry after half an hour, and Shino was too busy looking for bugs. Why he bothered when dogs were obviously superior, Kiba didn’t know but as his mom said, everyone was entitled to their own wrong opinion. 

His mother actually paused in brushing Kuromaru and shared a look with the old man. “Naruto is fine. And as for making friends, you’ll just have to introduce him slowly. It worked fine with Akamaru.” Kiba grumbled but admitted she was right. 

Kiba had been so excited when he finally got a partner. Akamaru was the best dog in the world and Kiba couldn’t wait to work together. The Inuzuka had permission to bring their partners to school as soon as they were chosen so the day after his fifth birthday Kiba had proudly carried Akamaru to school with him. It caused quite a fuss, with everyone wanting to pet him. Akamaru allowed it with good grace until Naruto came barreling in. As soon as he caught a whiff of Naruto’s scent, Akamaru had whimpered, burrowed under Kiba’s shirt, and refused to come out for the rest of the day. When Akamaru told Kiba he was scared because Naruto smelled stronger than anyone he had ever encountered, Kiba ran to Hana and demanded she fixed Akamaru’s nose. Kiba had once seen Naruto try a basic taijutsu move, trip over his own feet, and bang his head on a stump on the way down. And Akamaru thought this idiot was stronger than all of the jonin they had met? Obviously something was wrong with his nose. 

Hana had fallen over laughing at him before assuring him that no Akamaru’s nose was not broken, how could a nose even be broken, you idiot? But she wouldn’t tell him why Akamaru thought Naruto was so terrifying and neither would his mother. So Kiba decided to ignore that part for right now and focus on the more important issue- making sure his partner and friend got along. Every day he had Naruto sit by them at recess and slowly Akamaru got more comfortable around him. Now he was overjoyed to see Naruto and would climb all over him. 

Kiba wondered if there was a way to hurry things along. Neither he nor Naruto were patient enough to go through that time-consuming process with every new puppy. Maybe they could just go to the kennel and show the other puppies that Akamaru trusted Naruto? Akamaru was the best dog in the world so the other ones should follow his lead. Kiba resolved to try it this weekend.

But first he had to get through another boring day of lessons. Kiba didn’t understand why they were all necessary. Maybe some of the stuff about chakra control was useful, but Kiba had always learned better by doing, screwing up, and then figuring out why he had screwed up. Sitting at a desk all day was the worst and since he got so bored, he never actually learned anything. The only time something fun would happen was when Naruto and him would get into prank wars. Kiba had quickly trained Akamaru to carry supplies for him and so had an advantage since his partner was still small enough to get into most places unnoticed and then report back to Kiba. It drove Naruto crazy that Kiba was so much better at pranks than him. Kiba snickered to himself, but forced himself to at least look like he was paying attention. Mizuki had been getting quite upset with him lately when he disrupted lessons or dozed off. Lecturing him was bad enough but then he started complaining to his mother. Kiba knew his mom didn’t give a damn about Mizuki’s opinion. She said he smelled like a weasel and a coward. But he was rather persistent and she was tired of having her days interrupted by his complaints. So she made Kiba promise to stay on his good side for a few weeks and hopefully he'd leave them alone after that. Kiba could survive a few weeks of boredom without going crazy. Hopefully. Maybe. 

Distraction from his internal struggle came in the form of Shikamaru asking him if Kiba would join him for lunch. Kiba thought that was a little weird since Shikamaru was usually too lazy to bother approaching him first and he led him past the main grassy area to behind the tree with the swing. They usually only went back there when they were plotting a prank and didn’t want the teachers to overhear. Kiba was even more surprised when he saw Ino was already there. 

Kiba thought Ino was cool, if strange. She was strong and could command the attention of those around her, but spent more of her time gossiping about Sasuke than practicing. When he asked his mom about her behavior, she laughed and said Ino would carve her own path soon enough but for now she was playing it safe. She then muttered something under her breath about looking forward to all the stress she was going to cause Inochi. Adults were weird. But Kiba figured he better stay on Ino’s good side so when she did grow to be terrifying she wouldn’t have any unresolved grudges against him. 

“Hi, Kiba,” Ino greeted him. “Come sit.”

Kiba obeyed, glancing at Shikamaru to see what all this was about. To no surprise, the other boy had assumed his planning pose and was obviously putting the last steps of a grandmaster plan together. Kiba repressed a sigh. He knew Shikamaru was smart, but he always felt the other boy made things way more complicated than they needed to be.

“What do you think about how the village treats Naruto?” Ino asked.

Kiba was understandably confused. Ino had never seemed to care about Naruto before, except when yelling at him to leave Sasuke alone. Shikamaru he could understand. Him, Choji, and Kiba were pretty much the only kids who would voluntarily spend time around Naruto. And lately, Shikamaru had been asking Naruto a lot of questions about his living situation. The blond never suspected Shikamaru had a motive beyond mere curiosity but Kiba and Choji knew better. The questions were too specific and extensive for Shikamaru to bother asking them if he didn’t need the information. But they had stayed back and let Shikamaru continue his interrogation, trusting he knew best. 

“Well it’s kind of shit,” he responded candidly, hearing Shikamaru snort behind him. “He doesn’t have any kind of pack and the adults are pretty intent on making sure he doesn’t get one.” Pack was everything to Kiba- a support system, back-up for fights, people who would share food with you. Naruto rather obviously didn’t have any of that. Kiba was always willing to throw down with people who messed with his friends but he couldn’t attack everyone who said something bad about Naruto because that was almost everyone in the village. Plus his mom had pointed out that him constantly beating up anyone who was mean to Naruto wouldn’t make anyone like Naruto more. It would just make them be more subtle in their cruelty. So Kiba continued to support Naruto the best he could and he had noticed that Shikamaru had started bringing bigger lunches to share with Naruto, but they couldn’t be there for him all the time. Coming back on Monday mornings, Naruto always smelled of loneliness. Kiba didn’t know how to fix that beyond inviting him over as often as possible. Which he couldn’t do until the dogs got used to Naruto’s scent. Maybe he’d steal some of his dirty clothes and start the process that way? It was better than Naruto feeling rejected if he came over and all the dogs freaked out. 

“And you think the way he is treated is wrong?” Ino prodded further.

Kiba almost started yelling at her that of course it’s wrong until he noticed her tone. It was hopeful. Realizing they wouldn’t have brought him back here just to bad mouth Naruto, he simply replied, “Yeah it’s wrong. I mean, he smells weird but doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him.”

“Smells weird,” Ino muttered, seeming to file that piece of information away for later. “Good, I’m glad you agree with us.” She smirked, looking at Kiba with more fire in her eyes than he had ever seen, “So want to help us,” gesturing to Shikamaru and her, “change it?”

Kiba gave her a grin that was more teeth than anything else, “You bet.”

Ino grinned back at him and Shikamaru finally took a seat beside them. “I’m glad you’re in, Kiba, but you need to understand that this plan will take time. We can’t just fight everyone,” Shikamaru lectured.

Kiba rolled his eyes, “I’m not an idiot, Shikamaru.” Akamaru let out his own yip of annoyance. “Besides, I haven’t tried to do that in at least six months.” Shikamaru groaned and buried his head in his hands while Ino just laughed at his admission. “So I assume you have some grandmaster plan then?”

“Doesn’t he always?” Ino asked, rolling her eyes. Shikamaru glared at her while Kiba grinned. Yeah, he definitely wouldn’t mind spending more time around Ino.

“I have a general idea for the plan. It is not as comprehensive as I would like due to the number of variables and the lack of information.” Shikamaru outlined his plan to them. “Any questions?”

Ino and Kiba just stared at him in disbelief. His supposedly subpar plan far exceeded anything they could have put together. “I’m good for right now,” Ino finally responded. And then because she couldn’t help herself, “Do you really think we can accomplish all that?” Kiba understood where she was coming from. They were just kids. Sure they were all children of clan heads and Shikamaru and Ino were their clans’ heirs, but right now few, if any, people would care about their opinions.

Shikamaru shrugged, “I think it’s feasible. Besides what other choice do we have?” And wasn’t that a sobering thought. 

“Right, we’re going to kick ass!” Kiba yelled, with Akamaru matching his declaration. Shikamaru sighed again, but his loud proclamation made Ino look more confident. “Let’s start right now.” He turned to head back towards the classroom before realizing something. “Ah Shikamaru, you outlined the long-term plan and goals, but what do we do right now?”

“I was getting to that,” Shikamaru grumbled. “We need to start by changing our classmates' opinions about Naruto. That might not have a big effect on the village’s opinion of him but these are the people he is spending the most time around. If they are nice to him, he will be much happier.”

Kiba agreed with Shikamaru’s logic. He had smelled how sad and hurt Naruto was each time a classmate refused to talk to him or flinched away from him. 

“For now, Kiba, just keep being Naruto’s friend and hang out with him as much as possible. You won’t be much help in swaying our classmates since you are seen as Naruto’s closest friend. Ino will be the driving force with this part. She’s not obviously close to Naruto like you and I are and people listen to her. You up for it, Ino?”

The blond looked them dead in the eye and smiled, “Of course. Leave it to me.”

Kiba grinned again. He had no problem leaving the complicated talking to Ino since it was much more her specialty than his or even Shikamaru’s. He would just stand by Naruto and prepare for the next part of the plan. He’d break into Naruto’s apartment later to steal one of his dirty shirts to get the puppies accustomed to the blond’s smell. Naruto would be overjoyed if they didn’t run away from him the first time he showed up. 

“By the way, Shikamaru, you didn’t include anything in your plan about finding out why everyone hates Naruto. Isn’t that important?” Ino asked. Kiba realized she was right-addressing the root cause would be a much simpler way to go about this, so why wouldn’t they start there?

“While that would be more efficient, I doubt we can find out that information,” Shikamaru responded.

“What?” Ino gasped. “You’re admitting there’s something even you can’t figure out?”

Shikamaru shot her a glare, “When I asked my dad about Naruto he said he couldn’t tell me anything. Not wouldn’t but couldn’t. He would never say that unless he actually couldn’t tell me. Whatever the true reason is, it must be connected to a very big secret in the village.”

“But then how does everyone know?” Ino pointed out, which was Kiba’s exact question.

“I doubt everyone does. They probably know part of it, but something more is going on here. However, poking our noses into it would probably just get us in trouble with people whose attention we should avoid for this plan to work.”

With minimal grumbling, Kiba and Ino deferred to Shikamaru’s judgment. 

“If everyone understands their roles, let’s get back before anyone gets too suspicious,” Shikamaru suggested. He paused, seemed about to say something else when Ino cut in.

“Let’s do this. For Naruto!” She shouted, putting her hand forward.

Kiba instantly threw his in as well, while Shikamaru refused until Ino elbowed him in the ribs. “For Naruto,” they echoed. 

Looking at the other two, Kiba felt completely confident. They were some of the strongest and, more importantly for this plan, the smartest. However, even those traits become less important than the resolve he saw in their eyes. They would succeed. They couldn’t fail. Naruto needed them, even if he didn’t know it yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiba is a really fun character to write. I love how attached to Akamaru and his clan he is. The mental image of him bursting into Hana's room yelling that Akamaru's nose is broken is beautiful. Neither her nor Tsume ever lets him live that down.
> 
> Shikamaru, Ino, and Kiba would be a terrifying team. Shikamaru would provide the plan, Ino could manipulate people into doing what they want, and Kiba never gives up.
> 
> There will be one more set-up chapter and then we'll get to see the plan get underway.


	4. Tenten

Tenten had understood since she was small what people expected of her, which was honestly not much. She was a clanless orphan with no great talents. The orphanages were more crowded than they had ever been in the aftermath of the Nine-tails' attack on the village. Tenten noticed early on that they did not have enough rooms, clothes, or sometimes even food. The whole village was in a phase of rebuilding for years afterward and the children in the orphanage were easily forgotten. Clan children who lost their parents were taken care of by the rest of the clan and children who showed the potential to be powerful shinobi were quickly adopted by shinobi parents who lost children in the attack. So only the leftovers remained in the orphanage-those without a clan, special powers, or anyone who cared for them. Tenten had learned that life wasn’t kind to those who were ordinary. 

All orphans got a choice- they could either attend the ninja academy or go to civilian school. Regardless of the path they initially chose, most would end up civilians. Not everyone passed the academy and realistically what chance did someone like her have against a clan kid who had been taught specialized techniques since birth? But four-year-old Tenten had decided to attend the academy anyway. If nothing else, she figured knowing some basic fighting techniques would help her wherever she ended up. Plus she needed to keep an eye on two certain someones.

“Tenten, how are you this morning?” Came a shout quite close to her ear.

Tenten just sighed, used to his antics, “I’m fine, Lee. How are you?”

Her friend smiled at her, “I am excited to continue learning about being a ninja!”

Tenten had always been blown away by Lee’s enthusiasm. He struggled in school. He lapped up information but failed the simplest chakra exercises. Tenten herself was no prodigy but could at least somewhat direct her chakra. Lee never could. But he never gave up and Tenten had to admire that about him, although she sometimes wished he wasn’t so loud about it. His refusal to yield made him a prime target for bullies. But Tenten never told Lee to stop being himself. 

School went as normal. They could barely keep up with the theory, and things got even worse when it came time for practical demonstrations. Tenten clenched her teeth as Neji flawlessly executed the substitution jutsu they were working on. She knew she shouldn’t resent him as much as she did. It’s not like he was cruel to her or Lee. But she always felt like that was more because he refused to lower himself by addressing the likes of them than any kindness he possessed.

At lunch, Lee and she ate together, curled up against a big tree away from the others. Just like always, they wordlessly saved part of the food the orphanage had given them. After classes ended, they made their way to the clearing that had become their personal training ground. Lee practiced taijutsu, the only thing he had a hope of mastering while she threw the rusty old kunais she had found abandoned around the village. It wasn’t much, but they did what they could to improve. After about an hour, they hurried back to the orphanage to get started on chores. Waiting for them, as he always was, was Naruto.

“Hey, guys! Did you learn anything cool today?” Naruto danced around them, hungry for any scrap of information they could give him about the academy. He would start next year and couldn’t wait.

Far too used to this question, Tenten shrugged, “We’re still working on substitution jutsus. And yes,” she continued before Naruto could ask again, “as soon as one of us figures out to do them, we will show you.” Content with this answer, Naruto babbled on about his day, which mainly consisted of planning a new prank and getting yelled at by the orphanage staff. Lee added his commentary on their afternoon training, which Tenten let fade to background chatter as they dusted and swept.

As soon as they were done, they retired to their room and pulled out the food they had saved from lunch. It was always iffy about whether the orphanage would feed them dinner. Tenten knew they barely had enough food and so would sometimes “forgot” to call the three of them down. Tenten and Lee had figured out early on that they would be fed if Naruto wasn’t around. They weren’t sure why that was because Lee was just as loud as Naruto and seemed to annoy the workers about as much but they never looked at him with the hatred they did for Naruto. So Tenten had developed this strategy since they started going to school. The orphanage would always pack them lunch and they would save part of it to share with Naruto for dinner. Since Naruto usually wasn’t fed lunch, they made sure he got the biggest portion. It wasn’t a perfect system and all three knew hunger, but they had enough to keep them going. 

Despite the difficulties Naruto brought with him, Tenten could never see herself abandoning him. Perhaps because she saw too much of herself in him. She and Lee had talked about it once. She had mentioned how hostile the caregivers were towards Naruto and asked, “Do you think he will ever give up on making friends?”

“No,” Lee replied instantly. “He is like us-too determined to make his goals reality to even consider giving up. No matter how many times he is knocked down, he will get up again. Giving up was never an option for us.”

Tenten was thrown by his answer. She sometimes forgot that Lee could be surprisingly observant and had been hurt just as much as they had. “Well, we’ll just have to be there to offer him a hand up whenever possible,” she decided, which Lee enthusiastically agreed to. 

“Tenten,” Lee called out to her a few weeks after that conversation. It was nighttime and they could hear Naruto muttering in his sleep next to them. Most of the children slept in two big rooms, but the caregivers seemed to think Naruto was going to kill the other children in their sleep so had banished him to a converted broom closet when he was three. Everyone could hear him crying the first night and he looked terrible the next morning. Of course, Tenten wasn’t going to let that stand and so the next night just before lights out, she gathered up her blankets and made her way to where Naruto was. Lee had apparently had the same idea since he was already there when she knocked on the door. The three of them had made themselves relatively comfortable there. Come morning the workers were horrified to discover their sleeping arrangements, but Tenten and Lee were not to be deterred and kept sneaking out every night. Finally, they just gave up and let them do as they pleased. Tenten had heard one muttering to another, “They chose to get close to that monster. It’s on their heads if anything happens to them, we tried the best we could.” The arrangement suited them well, although Tenten wasn't sure what they were going to do if anyone hit a growth spurt. There was barely enough room as is. 

"What is it, Lee?” She replied, wondering what he wanted to talk about at this hour.

“What do you want?” He bluntly asked. The question caught her off guard, and before she could muster up a reply, he continued, “I want to be a shinobi. Naruto wants that too but he also wants to be the Hokage.” Tenten nodded along, everyone knew the dreams of those two, after all, they weren't exactly quiet about them. “But you never talk about what you want. Do you even want to be a shinobi?”

Tenten had honestly never thought about it. She went to the academy because she thought it would be useful but she didn’t hold out much hope of passing. She wanted to protect her friends but always felt like she wasn’t enough. Finally, she admitted, “I don’t know what I want. I never allowed myself to think about it.”

“Well, when you figure it out, let me know,” Lee responded. “I will support you in whatever you choose.”

“Thanks, Lee,” Tenten said. “That means a lot.”

After that conversation, she started really evaluating what activities she enjoyed and how she felt about what they learned at the academy. She still had not reached an answer until one day when their teacher started talking about the Third Ninja War and the legendary Sanin. She could care less about the other two, but she pursued any scrap of information about Lady Tsunade that she could find. And for the first time, she wanted something beyond food and a roof over her and her friends’ heads. She wanted people to talk about her the way they talked about Lady Tsunade, with awe. Finally, she felt like she had an answer. 

“I want to be someone,” she proclaimed to Lee and Naruto. “Someone that people respect and feel safe around. Someone as amazing as Lady Tsunade.” 

Both of them smiled at her and told her they believed in her. For a brief shining moment, everything was perfect. Then Naruto asked who Tsunade is and Lee tripped on a bedroll, smashed his face against the wall, and started bleeding everywhere so Tenten had to leap into action to deal with that mess. But she held onto their belief in her because it was all she had right now.

She kept trying every day to master the techniques they were taught in class. While she had more luck than Lee, she never really mastered any of them. However, her teacher did tell her she had the best aim out of all the students. While Tenten glowed under the praise, she feared her aim would never make her stand out among the clan children or ones who could master all the jutsus they were taught. But she kept practicing and hoped for the best.

Her first year at the academy passed by quickly, and soon enough it was time for Naruto to start as well. She had never seen him more excited. Of course, he struggled as much as Lee did in classes, but Tenten was overjoyed to discover at least some of his classmates were nice to him. Everything seemed to be going relatively well for them for once. Of course, it couldn’t last.

Naruto had been at the academy for about a month when the head of the orphanage called him to her office after dinner. Tenten exchanged a look with Lee, knowing that was never a good sign. However, she couldn’t think of anything Naruto had done in the past week to warrant a reprimand. They found out what it was about soon enough when Naruto trudged back to their room. When he opened the door he looked lost and scared, but he quickly pasted on a smile and informed them, “They’re letting me move out already! I’m going to have my own apartment and not have to fight with anyone for space. It’s going to be awesome!”

Tenten desperately wanted to say what they were all thinking but restrained herself, instead saying, “Wow, they’re letting you move out so soon? Good for you.” Lee also offered up his congratulations and hugged Naruto. That night, neither commented when Naruto insisted they sleep even closer than usual or how he clung to Lee during the night. They all knew this revealed more about how much the orphanage wanted to get rid of Naruto than any belief he was ready to take care of himself. What would he eat? Tenten wondered. She doubted the village would spare more than a pretense of a budget for the boy everyone hated. 

“What can we do?” Lee whispered to her after they were sure Naruto had fallen asleep.

She wished she knew. They couldn’t make the orphanage leaders keep Naruto and they couldn’t make the village hate him less. They were just a couple of orphans themselves, what power did they have? “We’ll just have to get them to let us move out ourselves as soon as possible,” Tenten declared. “Then we can get a place near him and make sure he’s alright.”

“But they usually don’t let people leave until they’ve made genin,” Lee pointed out.

“We’ll just have to make a big enough nuisance of ourselves that they want to get rid of us too,” Tenten decided. And so their plan was set. They waved Naruto off the next day and promised to visit him soon. Tenten was delighted to discover that the orphanage was practically handing them opportunities to put their plan into action. The night after Naruto left, a worker came by their makeshift room and ordered them to return to the communal bedrooms. Tenten took great pleasure in refusing and slamming the door in the worker’s face. They started staying out later to train and tracking mud back into the orphanage whenever possible. Lee took to yelling good morning at the top of his lungs before the sun had risen. They became the world’s clumsiest children, dropping dishes they were drying or spilling the mop water all over. It was irritating how long the leaders held out before calling Tenten and Lee to their office and explaining they thought it would be best for them to move out so they could train without disturbing the others. 

Tenten tried to be suitably apologetic so the caretakers did not realize this was what they were after all along, and elbowed Lee to keep him from grinning too much during the meeting. Finally, they had some good luck when the leader of the orphanage informed them that they were moving into the same apartment building as Naruto. She did tell them that they were getting the privilege of moving out early but due to budget constraints, they would have to share an apartment. Tenten was fine with that and she knew Lee would be too. They were practically siblings in all the ways that mattered at this point anyway. Honestly, Tenten felt better knowing they were living together so she could keep an eye on Lee and make sure he wasn’t getting disheartened by his continued inability to do jutsus and their classmates’ cruel words. They were given the keys to their apartment and information and where and when to pick up their weekly stipend. It wasn’t much but Tenten was determined to make it work.

Moving in didn’t take long due to how few belongings they had. While Tenten was a bit put out that they weren’t on the same floor as Naruto, she figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference in the end.

And so they fell into a new routine. They would alternate cooking, with Tenten and Lee doing most of it since Naruto was a disaster in the kitchen. They would walk to school together every morning and leave together afterward, inviting Naruto with them to their training clearing. It was a shame none of them excelled at doing jutsus, since they could have helped each other, but instead Lee focused on his taijutsu, Tenten on improving her throwing accuracy, and Naruto stubbornly continued to work on whatever jutsu he had learned in class. When the sun started to go down and they couldn’t see well enough to practice anymore, the three of them dragged themselves home, had dinner, and fell into bed. As much as Tenten would have liked to invite Naruto to stay with them, the caretakers had been very clear that if they allowed other people to stay over or weren’t in their own apartment during the night, they would be forced to move back into the orphanage. At least this way, they could stay with Naruto during the day.

“Lee, Tenten,” Naruto yelled out one Friday as they were preparing to leave the academy, “Kiba invited me over tomorrow. He’s going to introduce me to the puppies!” Naruto continued on telling them how many they were and such. Tenten just smiled and ruffled his hair. She was proud that Naruto was making other friends. And Kiba seemed like a good kid. She had seen him wrestling with Naruto a couple of times. And she trusted he wasn’t giving Naruto false hope just to turn around and stab him in the back later. She doubted he was capable of that. He seemed as honest as Naruto. 

It was ironic that Naruto was having much better luck than her and Lee at befriending at least some of the kids in his class. She didn’t know if that said more about how stuck up their class was or how bad they were at making friends. They didn’t have as many clan children as Naruto’s year, but that didn’t stop people from wanting to distance themselves from Lee and Tenten. She supposed that made sense. Clan kids knew they would succeed and have a support system. Non-clan kids had a lot more to lose if they made mistakes. Tenten knew if she quit hanging out with Lee, she could probably make a few friends because Lee was the main target of ridicule and no one wanted to be perceived as close to him. But she refused to disavow her oldest friend just for some superficial relationships. So she kept her head down and tried to help Lee as best she could, knowing exactly what she was getting into.

She was honestly happy for Naruto. She had noticed the lazy kid had taken to sharing his lunch with Naruto, which really helped them stretch their meager budget. The one with the odd spirals on his cheeks was also nice to Naruto. Tenten really needed to work on remembering names, since she knew Naruto had mentioned them at least once. Since she barely remembered the names of her classmates, she didn’t hold out much hope she would remember Naruto’s. Kiba, at least she remembered since Naruto talked about him the most. From what she had seen, the rest of the class either ignored or insulted Naruto regularly. 

At breakfast Saturday morning, Naruto couldn’t contain his excitement, chatting about how many puppies there were and how cool the Inuzukas were. Tenten nodded along while Lee joined in with Naruto’s enthusiasm. Lee liked to befriend small animals, bringing old bread for squirrels and birds. Tenten tried to scold him for it but never had the heart to after seeing how happy it made him. After Naruto left for the Inuzuka compound, Lee and Tenten made their way to the administrative desk. It was time to pick up their weekly stipends. Luckily, the desk shinobi had agreed to give them Naruto’s as well. Tenten suspected this had more to do with their desire not to be near Naruto than any kindness for them, but the end result was convenient for her so she didn’t complain.

After collecting their stipends, Lee and she made their way to the market. She gave Lee a list of supplies they needed and yelled at him not to get distracted as he ran off, knowing that wasn’t going to happen. Tenten proceeded to buy her part of the list, happy to find some good deals on fish. She only got distracted by shiny weapons twice. She eyed the new kunai with longing. All the ones at the academy were old and bent. Their teacher told them it was good practice with aiming and Tenten understood that, but just once she wanted to use a kunai that flew straight. But it cost a third of her and Lee’s stipend and they needed to eat. One day, she told herself. I’ll be able to afford new weapons once I become a full-fledged shinobi. 

Tenten was so lost in her thoughts that it took her a while to notice that someone had fallen into step alongside her. Glancing over, she recognized the girl as the blond from Naruto’s class. She was from the clan of mind-readers, Tenten thought. She had no idea why the girl would seek her out. As far as Tenten knew, she wasn't friends with Naruto and she couldn’t come up with a different reason for this meeting. She didn’t mind waiting the blond out, guessing she didn’t have an abundance of patience. 

She was proven right when the girl fidgeted slightly before speaking, “You’re Tenten, right?” She asked. After Tenten nodded, she continued, “I’m Ino. I was wondering if you had time to talk.” 

Tenten raised her eyebrow, “About what?”

“A mutual friend,” Ino responded, trying to subtly guide her away from the crowded marketplace.

Tenten let her. She didn’t think the blond was a friend of Naruto’s but she didn’t seem to have malicious intentions. There wasn’t any harm in hearing her out and if Tenten was wrong, well she was supposed to meet up with Lee soon and he would come and look for her if she didn’t make it. Given his lack of patience, she guessed that would be sooner rather than later.

Ino led her to a small field near the edge of the village. When she didn’t say anything at first, Tenten prompted, “What is it? I’ve got groceries to put away so if you could say your piece sooner rather than later, that would be nice.”

Ino nodded and began, “You’re friends with Naruto.” Although it wasn’t really a question, Tenten nodded. If she was going to mock her for that, Tenten was going to punch her, future clan head or not. She couldn’t do much for Naruto, but she could at least do that.

Instead of bad-mouthing Naruto, Ino smiled, “You’re a good friend. You do a lot for him. I hope you know how much he appreciates it and cares about you even if he doesn’t say.”

Tenten found herself at a loss for words. No one had ever spoken positively of her relationship with Naruto and certainly no one had noticed how hard she tried to take care of him.

“I haven’t been a good friend to Naruto,” Ino admitted. “I saw him as loud and annoying and never questioned the way the villagers shied away from him.”

“What changed?” Tenten asked.

“I actually started looking at how people treated him and I couldn’t believe it,” Ino explained. “I saw Kaede, who has always been kind to me, lie to his face about whether she had food and given his reaction, I’m sure that was not the first time it had happened. Once I started seeing things, I couldn’t stop.”

Tenten knew what she was talking about. There was a reason she and Lee did the shopping. If she sent Naruto to get something, everything was suddenly more expensive or out of stock altogether. 

“I’m glad Naruto has other people looking out for him, but why are you talking to me?” Tenten asked.

“Oh,” Ino said, “about that.” She rubbed her neck almost sheepishly. “We’re trying to get the other students in our class to think more favorably of Naruto. You know him best so I was wondering if you could tell me some of your favorite things about him. Things that make him a good friend. I can use those to further our campaign.”

Tenten raised her eyebrow, “I appreciate your dedication, but you’re dealing with twenty-odd kids not a legion of enemy shinobi. Are you really calling it a campaign?”

Ino groaned, “Once Shikamaru gets involved everything has to relate to a grand plan with twenty parts and three side-plots. It’s his thing.” 

Tenten snorted, recognizing the sheer amount of exasperation in Ino’s voice as similar to how she probably sounded when she talked about the amount of energy Naruto and Lee have. “Oh, he’s the lazy one, right?”

Ino laughed, “Most definitely. But he’s also the one who opened my eyes to the way Naruto was being treated, so I can’t complain about his methods too much.”

Tenten came to a decision. Having more allies was never a bad thing and Ino seemed trustworthy and competent. She was much better situated to influence the opinions of Naruto’s classmates than Tenten was in any case and subtly had never been Tenten’s strong point anyway. “Come back to my apartment with me,” Tenten offered. “Lee and I can give you a rundown of Naruto’s best points. Just prepare yourself, Lee will probably cry and definitely yell.”

Ino looked a little bit taken aback but recovered quickly, “Sounds interesting. I’m game.”

Ino offered to take one of Tenten’s bags which she gladly allowed. “By the way,” Ino said, “I’ve noticed you have really good aim with kunai. Would you like to practice together sometime? I need to work on my accuracy.”

Tenten grinned, “I would love to, but you have to promise to spar with me as well.”

Ino grinned back, “I look forward to it.”

Tenten was delighted. A plot to get Naruto more friends, a productive shopping trip, and a new sparring partner for her. This was the best afternoon she had had in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter I have ever written. I would apologize for essentially turning it into a character study of Tenten, but I'm really not. I love Tenten so much.
> 
> In case anyone was wondering about the timing of this fic, Shikamaru starts plotting and following Naruto soon after he moves out. That's why he didn't see Tenten and Lee. Naruto was also more lonely than ever without those two, making Shikamaru more aware of him.
> 
> One of the many things that never made sense to me in canon is that Tenten is more aligned with Neji than Lee-telling Lee he can't beat Neji, etc. It seemed to me that Tenten and Lee had much more in common than she did with Neji and Tenten would know how hard it was to fight when no one else believed in you. She doesn't have a last name, so I headcannon her as an orphan, same as I headcannon Lee, and doesn't fight in a traditional way. She is one of the only shinobi we see who primarily uses weapons instead of jutsus. She obviously has some chakra control, given her ability with seals, but I've always thought that using seals requires different skills than using jutsus, so she probably also struggled in the academy where jutsus were the main thing taught. I'm honestly just fascinated by the internal dynamics of Team Gai and want to explore those more but this is probably not the place to do it. But you stick a Hyuuga prodigy with lots of issues with two clanless orphans, neither of which use traditional methods with a clanless orphan teacher who definitely uses unusual methods and is the single most exuberant individual in the village and just wait to see what happens. It worked out well but I wish they had shown us more of Team Gai's training because it must have been hilarious. 
> 
> Trying to write Tenten and Lee pre-Gai is surprisingly difficult. I can to the conclusion that they wouldn't have any less determination, but would have less confidence in themselves. Gai was the first adult that really believed they were capable of achieving their goals, especially for Lee. 
> 
> I always wondered what happened to the kids that pass the academy but fail their jonin teacher's test. I'm pretty sure they say only three teams pass a year and the rest get sent back to the academy. Do they just stay another year and get to try again? Does this cycle repeat until the give up and quit? In Naruto's class, it didn't seem like anyone who failed the jonin's test was a clan kid so they must either be from civilian households or non-clan shinobi households. What happens to them? Do they just fade into civilian life and never feel bitter about losing to people who were primarily clan kids who had specialized training and support from the get-go? As always, I have a lot of questions about the social structure of the village.
> 
> I'll end the super long notes on this super long chapter there. As promised, the plan will actually start taking effect next chapter. It will be fun.


	5. Choji

Choji knew something was up. He wasn’t as smart as Shikamaru or as good at reading people at Ino but he had known those two practically his entire life so he noticed when they started acting off. Not a bad off. He didn’t think anyone was secretly dying or anything, but their behavior had definitely changed. 

He noticed it in Shikamaru first. He seemed to be actually paying attention in class. That was odd enough, but what he was paying attention to was not the lesson itself but their fellow classmates. Shikamaru had previously not paid much attention to their classmates beyond his own personal friends. But now he seemed to be evaluating everyone and sorting them into categories in his mind. 

Choji guessed this had something to do with Naruto. Around the same time as Shikamaru’s change in behavior in class, he had started bringing bigger lunches and sharing with Naruto, without Naruto realizing this. Choji wasn’t quite sure why this was, but he helped in his own way, eating some of it so Naruto didn’t feel weird about it. Not that eating anything Shikamaru’s mom made was a hardship. Shikamaru also asked Naruto lots of questions about his living situation. Choji was concerned about the answers he gave. Naruto had no one to eat or cook with. Choji knew his parents made sure he had enough to eat and that he ate more than just sweets and snacks. Who did this for Naruto?

But Choji didn’t interfere, trusting that Shikamaru had a plan and would tell him about it when the time was right. He liked Naruto. The other boy was kind and never made fun of him for how much he ate. Choji considered him a friend and anything that helped Naruto was something he would help with.

Ino’s oddness was more subtle. She was friends with Shikamaru and Choji but didn’t usually hang out with them during school, choosing to spend more time with the other girls in their class. This didn’t bother Choji since he knew Ino was still his friend and would stand up for him if someone was being mean to him. Plus, she just seemed to like being around people more than Shikamaru and Choji. But because of this, she never really interacted much with Naruto besides yelling at him when he annoyed her. While she still didn’t directly interact with Naruto frequently, she had stopped yelling at him completely. Choji also noticed she never joined in when her friends made fun of Naruto. It wasn’t obvious right away, but Choji knew she was up to something. 

Given that both shifts were focused on Naruto, he figured they were in on a plan together. Kiba was probably in on it too since he was Naruto’s closest friend and had been inviting Naruto over much more frequently. Apparently they were making real progress in getting the puppies more accustomed to Naruto. 

Choji just shrugged it off. He trusted those three would do what was best and would tell him when it was necessary. Shikamaru got very controlling over his plan and probably didn’t want to bring in too many people too early. He said the more people knew, the harder a plan was to control. So Choji would keep being Naruto’s friend and be ready to do more if Shikamaru asked.

While he didn’t know quite what the plan was or its exact goal, he guessed it was going pretty well. It was obviously centered around Naruto and he seemed to be doing better recently. Choji knew how much it hurt when other kids called you names or wouldn’t play with you, and Naruto got that more than he did. Plus Choji had his parents, who were always willing to talk with him about his problems and reassure him that he was loved and would someday have lots of friends who appreciated him for who he was. Naruto didn’t have parents to reassure him. And he didn’t have friends from before the academy like Choji did in Shikamaru and Ino, either. As much as he hoped having Shikamaru, Kiba, and him helped Naruto now, Choji knew there was something special about knowing he had friends to watch his back before he even started the academy.

“Hey, Choji,” Naruto called out, running towards him.

Choji moved his lunch out of the way so Naruto could have a seat next to him. Kiba wasn’t there today. Apparently one of the puppies was sick and he was helping his older sister take care of her. Ino was having lunch with her usual group of friends and Choji wasn’t sure where Shikamaru was. It was fifty-fifty whether he was doing something to further his plot or napping behind a bush. Since he had been busy, Choji had taken over bringing lunch for Naruto. His mom didn’t object when he explained the reason and it wasn’t like they were going to run out of food at his house anytime soon. 

“My mom is trying out a new recipe,” Choji told Naruto as he sat down. “Will you try it and tell me what you think?” This was technically true, but really his mom had just slightly adjusted the spice ratio on a family-favorite recipe and didn’t need any feedback.

“It’s really good,” Naruto complimented, immediately stuffing his face with more food. Choji grinned, happy his friend no longer felt awkward accepting food from him.

“Today’s lesson was so boring,” Naruto complained as he ate.

Choji agreed. They had spent all morning doing basic chakra exercises and history lessons. And it wasn’t even the history of the Land of Fire! Choji understood shinobi should know their enemy but was memorizing the names of the leaders of the Land of Water really going to help them when they were fighting shinobi from Mist? Plus Mizuki never let him eat snacks during lessons which had it really hard for him to focus.

“At least we have practical lessons this afternoon,” Choji pointed out, in an effort to cheer Naruto up. Honestly, Choji wasn’t that fond of practical lessons either. They were tiring and focused on skills Choji wasn’t great at. However, Naruto loved practical lessons, and as Choji had hoped, perked right up at the mention of them.

“Right. Today’s the day I’m going to beat Sasuke,” Naruto proclaimed for the tenth time that month. Choji honestly didn't understand Naruto’s obsession with him. Sure, the other boy was very skilled, but he wasn’t the best in everything. However, even when they were doing something that someone else in the class was the best, Naruto still focused on Sasuke. Choji just learned to accept it since asking Naruto about it led to the blond going on an impassioned rant about his desire to beat Sasuke.

Having definite goals was good, Choji guessed. His goal was usually just to get through school so he could have his snack, but occasionally he would feel very dedicated to learning the clan technique his father was trying to teach him. Lunch was over far too soon for Choji’s taste, but he followed after Naruto as the blond energetically ran towards the practice area. 

They were starting with kunai throwing, which was a relief. Choji was by no means a genius with kunai, but he wasn’t the worst in the class either, so Mizuki usually left him alone as long as he was trying. Unfortunately for the eardrums of everyone in the class, this was one of the areas Sasuke most excelled at so Naruto promptly ran up to him and started yelling in his face about how he was finally going to beat him today, you hear stupid Sasuke? Sasuke just scoffed at him. It said a lot about the occurrence of these exchanges that no one in their class reacted anymore. 

Choji was one of the first names called, so he lost track of his friend while he threw. Thankfully, all ten of his kunai hit the target and three of them even hit the center ring. He definitely wouldn’t be held back after school for extra practice! Choji watched the rest of the class go, absent-mindedly noting who had improved and ducking from a stray kunai from a classmate. Sasuke, of course, hit the center ring every time. 

Finally, it was Naruto’s turn. This time he actually threw the kunai one at a time unlike his previous disastrous attempt when he tried to throw several at once, nearly hitting several classmates. Naruto, Choji noted, had more enthusiasm than skill for aiming, but he had to admire that he never gave up. Unfortunately, only four of his kunai hit the target, and none of them were anywhere close to the center. Choji winced, watching as Naruto’s face fell before he plastered on a smile and proclaimed he would be the best next time. Choji wasn’t sure if he should try to comfort him. He wasn’t good with words like Ino or Shikamaru. He searched his pockets, hoping he had stashed a snack there for later that he could give to Naruto. However, he had already eaten all of his snacks for the day. Before Choji could come to a decision, Sakura approached Naruto. The rest of the class was making their way to the next station, but she held back for a second.

“You’re improving,” she said, voice aggressively cheerful.

“Huh?” Naruto eloquently responded. Choji didn’t blame him. Sakura and Naruto certainly weren’t friends, although Naruto seemed to like her. She spent most of her time focused on Sasuke and seemed to find Naruto annoying.

“You hit the target four times today,” Sakura persevered. “Last week you only hit it twice.” She paused for a second, desperately searching for something else to say, “So keep trying.” She sent Naruto a shaky smile and ran towards the rest of their classmates, immediately finding Ino and gesturing at her. 

Ino patted Sakura’s head and grabbed her hand to pull her along, glancing back. She made eye contact with Choji and smiled before gesturing her head at Naruto who was standing still with his mouth open in disbelief. Choji sighed, knowing they would get in trouble if they didn’t catch up.

“C’mon, Naruto. We have to go,” He prompted, pushing the other boy from behind.

Luckily this reminder broke Naruto out of his daze, “She complimented me! Did you hear that, Choji? She thinks I’m talented!” Naruto exclaimed.

Choji wouldn’t go that far, but he didn’t want to burst Naruto’s bubble so he hummed non-committedly. Naruto didn’t get a lot of praise or any positive feedback often so Choji figured he would let him enjoy this moment.

The rest of the afternoon went about as Choji expected. Naruto’s increase in confidence after the conversation with Sakura didn’t translate into much better results, but he seemed happy enough. Choji was honestly just glad to be done. He wanted to go home and eat a snack.

As he made his way towards the gates, he noticed a couple of classmates hesitantly waving good-bye to Naruto. It wasn’t much yet, but Choji could tell how much it meant to Naruto.

He fell into step alongside Ino and Shikamaru who were also watching the exchange.

“It’s working,” he commented to them.

Both of them smiled back at him. “Of course,” Shikamaru said, as Ino rolled her eyes at him, “we won’t accept any other result.”

Watching Naruto run-up to his friends from the year above them and gesture wildly to describe his day, Choji understood what they meant. Naruto deserved happiness and they were the only ones who cared enough to make sure he got it. So they would succeed no matter what.

“Come over to my place,” Choji offered two oldest friends. “Mom’s trying a new recipe and I’m sure she would love to see you and get your feedback.”

Ino accepted delightedly, “Yes, your mom is the best.” They ignored Shikamaru’s complaints about wanting to find a nice tree to take a nap under and dragged him along. Looking at them, Choji felt completely confident. With them supporting each other, how could they fail?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Choji is smarter than some people give him credit for. He's definitely the most grounded of Team 10 and has no problem leaving the complex planning up to Shikamaru and sometimes Ino. But he would recognize when they were involved in some plot and support them the best he could.
> 
> Look I understand Sasuke was a prodigy child but there is no way he was the absolute best at every single thing all the time. But Naruto would definitely focus on him no matter what.
> 
> I hope everyone is staying healthy and taking care of themselves and their loved ones.


	6. Interlude-Kakashi

Kakashi stood in front of the Memorial Stone, as he did every morning he was in the village.

“It’s his birthday today,” he told the stone. “He’s seven today.” He honestly didn’t know if he wanted the people he was talking to hear him or not. On the one hand, he wanted them to know he cared and have the chance to learn about their son. On the other hand, he didn’t want them to see how badly their son was treated. How badly he had failed their son.

“He looks just like you, Minato,” he continued. “But he has Kushina’s tendency to get into trouble. He loves ramen just as much as you did, Kushina. That’s probably because of how much of it you ate when you were pregnant with him. He still hasn’t managed to hit the target every time when throwing kunai but that hasn’t stopped him from trying wacky techniques like trying to throw while flipping upside down. He nearly took out his teacher with that move.” If they had been alive, Kakashi was sure Kushina would have laughed and said the bastard deserved it while Minato would try to reign in his wild family. He’d surely fail since Naruto seemed to have also inherited his mother’s stubbornness and Kakashi had never known Minato to win an argument with her.

“You’d love him,” he whispered, trying not to let his feelings overwhelm him. Minato and Kushina had always been so kind to him, accepting him as part of their family. Kushina was constantly pressuring him to eat and Minato would check in with him often about how his missions were going and whether being part of the anbu was still what he wanted. Kushina had been pressuring him to leave the anbu before her death, insisting they would need help with their kid and Kakashi was basically his big brother so he had to help out. For a moment, Kakashi had let himself believe that he could have something good for himself. And then the fox reminded him that everyone he loved eventually left him. He remembered hearing the news about Minato and Kushina and just feeling numb. He helped with clean-up until all the bodies were cleared and there was nothing else to do. He went home, collapsed in the room his father had killed himself, and cried for hours. It was the first time he had let himself cry since Rin’s death. He didn’t remember falling asleep but eventually, he roused himself and extracted himself from the dogpile. He didn’t remember summoning them either. 

And then he reported to the Hokage’s office for his next mission. He sat through the report on the damage to the village, the list of the dead, and supported the decision to reinstate the Third as Hokage. Minato had mentioned to him a couple of times that he thought Kakashi would be a good Hokage but he knew he never could be. Everything he touched eventually turned to dust in his hands. Obito, Rin, various anbu colleagues, and now Minato and Kushina had died around him, for him and he wasn’t strong enough to prevent their deaths. All he was good at was killing. He could never trust himself to lead the village. 

He couldn’t even bring himself to protest when the Third decided to send Naruto to an orphanage and forbade anyone from telling him who his parents were. Kakashi could feel everyone’s eyes upon him, waiting for him to speak up. Minato and Kushina had told him they wanted him to look after Naruto if anything happened to them, but he couldn’t. Being near Naruto would only put the boy at more risk. Kakashi couldn’t let anything happen to Kushina and Minato’s son because of him. So he stayed silent, took the solo mission to go collect supplies and tried to push Naruto out of his head. He was being taken care of and anyone would be better at that than Kakashi friend-killer was.

Kakashi forced himself to hold onto that belief even as he saw how the orphanage staff treated Naruto. At least Naruto was alive and had shelter and usually food. That was probably more than Kakashi could give him. He had to admit he was rather amused by Naruto’s two little friends. Kakashi would have accused Gai of having a kid if he didn’t know that if Gai ever had a kid, he would probably carry pictures them around from the moment they were born and would never stop talking about his kid. Kakashi did mention Lee to Gai anyway, just to see what his friend would do. He then regretted doing this since Gai had taken to stalking both of Naruto’s friends and described in great detail their training methods to Kakashi. Kakashi was just waiting for the moment Gai had an actual conversation with the two of them and revealed his creepily in-depth knowledge of their training regiment. Lee probably won’t even blink but Kakashi guessed Tenten would be rather concerned. She seemed to be the only one of the three with any survival instincts. 

Kakashi was away on a long-term mission when Naruto moved into his new apartment. He missed Naruto’s first two months of school. When he wasn’t stalking his targets through the forest, he thought about how many pictures Minato would have insisted upon if he was still alive. He guessed enough to fill an entire scrapbook. By the time he got back, Naruto had settled into his new routine. In the mandatory time off after showing up to medical with his leg broken in three places, he watched Naruto. He watched as the boy gave his all and still usually failed and tried not to be reminded of Obito’s antics. He watched Naruto train with Tenten and Lee and found himself glad Naruto had people to talk to. He saw Naruto befriend Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji and found himself being a little more accommodating to Tsume, Shikaku, and Choza. 

When Shikamaru started plotting (and Kakashi had seen that look on Shikaku’s and many other Naras’ faces enough to know what that face meant) Kakashi allowed himself to hope. He couldn’t save Minato and Kushina’s son from the village’s torment. He could never trust himself to get close to the boy because everyone who got close to him ended up dead, sooner or later. So he left small amounts of money in Naruto’s apartment, knowing the boy was too naive to realize that someone was leaving for him. He had actually heard Naruto wonder aloud about how he kept leaving money all over the place. He made sure that no one got too physical with Naruto when he was out in the village. But the rest he had to trust to others. And as he watched Shikamaru’s plan unfurl between missions and trips to the Memorial Stone, he knew in this one instant he was right to believe. They would help Naruto in ways Kakashi never could and Naruto would never have to know about the failure that was Kakashi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn Kakashi has the world's worst case of survivor guilt. I honestly made myself cry writing this chapter. Sorry it's short, I just wanted to give a glimpse into what Kakashi was up to. I'll probably throw in a few more interludes in the future from various adult's povs to get their reactions to the kids' scheming.


	7. Sakura

Sakura hadn’t expected to enjoy the academy as much as she did. She knew her parents didn’t expect her to take to fighting the way she had. Her father was a merchant and her mother made clothes. They were both from civilian families. Sakura was the first one in her family to attend the academy. Although she never admitted it to her parents, her main motivation initially was staying close to Ino.

Sakura had met Ino when she was four. She had been playing tag with some of the other kids when she collided with the other girl, who was carrying a potted plant about as tall as her. The blond managed to stay on her feet, unlike Sakura, but the plant flew out of her hands. Sakura watched as it fell and the pot shattered. She immediately started frantically apologizing, getting even more flustered when she realized she was talking to a clan kid. She didn’t know much about individual clans herself but she had heard from older kids that all the clan kids learned special ways to kill starting from death and so they thought they were better than other kids. 

All her fears vanished when the other girl reached out her hand and helped her up. “Are you alright?” She asked, brushing clumps of dirt off Sakura’s clothes.

Sakura just stared at her a minute before responding, “Yes, I’m fine-not hurt at all. I’m so sorry about your plant. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Don’t worry about it. We have plenty more where that came from. Anyway, it’s partially my fault since I wasn’t exactly looking where I was going. I’m Ino, by the way,” she introduced herself.

“Sakura. And I do really feel bad about it. You were carrying that really tall plant, it’s not your fault you weren’t looking,” Sakura babbled. “I have no excuse.”

Ino just laughed again, “If you feel that badly, how about you come back to the shop with me and you can help me carry another one? Then you won’t have to feel bad about it anymore.”

“Sure,” Sakura agreed.

“Great, just let me pick up this mess,” Ino said. She gathered up the plant and thrust it into Sakura’s arms before gathering up as much of the pot as she could. “That should do it, let’s go,” she took the plant back from Sakura and directed her towards the flower shop. On their walk, Ino told her how her family had run this place for generations and started explaining flower language to her. 

When they walked into the shop, Ino waved at the man behind the counter, “Hey, Dad. There was a little bit of an incident with the Aburame’s plant. I’m going to replant this one and get another one.”

“Oh, the plant I specifically offered to help you carry because it was so big, but you waved me off and assured me you were fine on your own? That plant?” Ino’s dad replied.

“Yes, yes. You’re right. But now I have Sakura helping me so I’ll be fine,” Ino darted into a back room.

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Sakura. I’m Inochi. I hope my daughter hasn’t dragged you here against your will.”

“No, I ran into her as she was carrying the first plant and I wanted to make it up to her,” Sakura explained, while Ino let out a long-suffering “Dad!” from the other room to signal her objection. She was internally freaking out because she recognized Inochi. One of the older kids had pointed him out as the head of the clan that could read minds. Could he read her mind right now? Could Ino?

“Thank you for your help, Sakura,” Inochi said, ignoring his daughter’s huffing. “Feel free to stop by anytime.”

Sakura nodded, feeling glad when Ino reappeared, hauling a plant that looked even larger than the one she had been carrying previously. “Here, you take this side. I’ll walk backward when necessary, just tell me if I’m about to fall or run into something, okay?” Ino instructed.

So Sakura found herself walking through the village, guiding Ino when necessary. Throughout their journey, Ino kept up a steady stream of chatter, telling Sakura all about her clan and how annoying some of her older cousins were. Sakura, who was the only child of two parents who were also only children, thought that Ino’s family sounded amazing. Ino must always have someone to play with or talk to. When she hesitantly voiced this thought to her companion, Ino paused for a second, luckily not in the middle of the road, and sent Sakura a look that made her think back to the older kids saying that Ino’s clan could see right through people and know their every thought. “Well, you’ll just have to come over for dinner sometime so you can see how annoying they are. I do admit, having everyone around can be nice sometimes.”

Sakura wasn’t sure if she could survive an entire meal with people as forthright as Ino, but found herself agreeing anyway. Sakura had a feeling Ino was used to getting her way and would wage war upon her resolve until she folded if she didn’t agree. So Sakura decided to save face by just acquiescing at the start. Sakura thought that was the oddest thing that would happen, but apparently Ino lived to defy her expectations. After she talked about her family, she asked a series of questions about Sakura’s family. Sakura knew her family was nowhere near as interesting as a clan of mind readers, but that didn’t deter Ino. Soon, Sakura found herself telling Ino about how her dad traveled a lot for his job and her mom worked a lot, and she didn’t make friends easily so she felt lonely a lot. Sakura didn’t mean to tell the other girl all this, she didn’t want Ino, who was so cool, to see her as pathetic. But Ino kept asking questions and Sakura would get caught up in answering them and before she knew it, she would say more than she ever intended. 

Sakura was momentarily relieved when they finally reached what Ino told her was the Aburame compound. But only momentarily because while she might not have to deal with Ino’s questions anymore, it struck that she was inside a clan compound! She had never been inside one before. She racked her brains trying to remember anything about the Aburame, but drew a blank. The guard at the gate had worn a big coat, but while that looked vaguely familiar to Sakura, she couldn’t recall their clan ability.

A person wearing a similar coat to the guard greeted them and instructed them where to carry the plant. Ino chatted with them for a little bit and accepted the money they gave her. As they were handing over payment, Sakura saw insects emerging from their coat and couldn’t stop herself from jumping back. While she wasn’t really squeamish around bugs, that had been more bugs in one place than she wanted to deal with. Ino seemed to notice her reaction because she was quick to thank the person and say good-bye, dragging Sakura with her. 

“Why were there so many bugs?” Sakura wailed, once they were a little ways away.

“That’s the Aburame’s bloodline technique,” Ino explained, clearly amused by Sakura’s reaction. “They cultivate and communicate with bugs. They buy a lot of plants that bugs like. Haven’t you heard of them?”

Sakura had heard of a clan that cultivated bugs inside their bodies, but she had thought that was just civilians making up crazy powers. She hadn’t known they actually existed! Ino had laughed at her again, then told Sakura she had to head back to the shop. “It was nice meeting you,” Ino said. “I’ll see you soon.”

Sakura had waved good-bye to Ino and figured that was the end of that. Ino had an entire clan and probably tons of friends with crazy powers, she wouldn’t bother hanging out with Sakura again. But she was wrong. Day after day, Ino would find her and drag her along on some new adventure. Sometimes they would play with whoever else was around. But most of the time, Ino would drag her off to do things she hadn’t done before. She introduced Sakura to Shikamaru and Choji. Choji was nice but Sakura wasn’t quite sure what to think about Shikamaru. He never wanted to do anything. She understood why Ino sought out other people to hang out with since it got boring looking at clouds all the time. 

Other times, Ino would teach Sakura basic fighting skills. Nothing too intense since they weren’t even academy age yet, but Ino showed her what a kunai was and walked her through a few simple take-down techniques. True to her word, she had invited Sakura over for dinner a few times. The first time she went, Sakura couldn’t believe the sheer amount of people crowded around the table. And they all looked so similar. While Ino’s goal was to convince Sakura that her family was annoying. Sakura ended up still feeling jealous. While her relatives teased her a lot, it was plain to see that they doted on Ino. Sakura thought that must be nice. 

When she brought it up with Ino later, her friend let out a sigh, “I’m the clan head’s only child and I’ll one day be clan head so they all fuss over me. It was nice for a while because I could get basically whatever I wanted, but now it just feels kind of stifling. I want to be able to just run around or goof off without being reminded of my importance in the clan or their expectations of me. I know that they love me, but I want to be able to make my own mistakes and find my own solutions instead of them sweeping in and solving things for me. I talked to my dad about it, and he understood and backed off, but it’s hard to convince the rest of them to do so.”

Sakura had never thought about things in that way. She knew her parents had expectations of her. Her mother wanted her to take over her business eventually, and her father wanted her to marry someone who would help his business. But those were distant expectations and didn’t really affect her right now. She was free to do basically whatever she wanted and no one cared as long as she was home for dinner. To constantly feel like you had something to prove to whoever may be watching you was a feeling she was not familiar with.

“Well, I think you’re pretty great so I’ll support you no matter what you do,” Sakura promised.

Ino leaned over and ruffled her hair, “Thanks, Sakura. I appreciate it.”

After that, Sakura found herself hanging out with Ino even more. They would go outside the main part of the village, although still within the village gates for safety reasons, where they could be away from prying eyes that might judge them. They chased frogs by the pond, braided flower crowns, and laughed themselves similar over stupid jokes. It was the most fun Sakura had ever had.

So when the time came to choose where she went to school, it was not a hard choice to make. It was a little difficult convincing her parents to allow her to attend the academy. Sakura pointed out attending the academy did not mean she had to be a shinobi and learning some basic fighting skills would only work to her advantage. After a little arguing, they agreed, although her mom insisted she come straight home after school let out each day so she could help with the chores. Sakura agreed to this stipulation without hesitation, knowing she would get to see Ino all day anyway and during the weekends, and there wasn’t anything else she really wanted to do besides hang out with her. 

And it was amazing. She loved learning the history of the village and about the abilities of various clans. It was all so fascinating. And surprisingly, she also enjoyed the practical lessons. She knew she wasn’t as good as Sasuke or anything, but she was making progress. And if she did struggle with something, Ino would practice with her so she could improve. Their teacher had even told Sakura she had exceptional chakra control for someone her age! Well, he had actually said, “You have surprisingly good chakra control,” but Sakura would take it. She didn’t think Mizuki liked her very much. 

When she told Ino this, the other girl rolled her eyes and told her, “Don’t take it personally. I honestly don’t think he likes any of us much. I have no idea why he is even a teacher in the first place.” As much as Sakura’s parents had told her not to question adults because they knew what was best, Sakura had to agree with Ino’s assessment. She had seen other teachers congratulate their students or look proud of them, but never Mizuki. Even when he looked at Sasuke, who was undoubtedly a prodigy, it wasn’t quite pride in his eyes. If Sakura had to put a name to it, it was more like greed. But she didn’t dwell on it. Mizuki taught them what they needed to know and Sakura could go to Ino if she had questions or needed help. 

Besides the lesson themselves, Sakura really enjoyed spending time with her classmates. Some of them, like Shikamaru and Choji, she had met through Ino but most of them were new to her, although many seemed familiar with each other.

Ino had explained to her, “A whole lot of clan heads have kids our age so all of us have at least met each other before. I know Shikamaru and Choji best because our clans are very close, but I’ve also spent time with Hinata pretty often and even Kiba and Shino a few times. They’re all pretty nice, although a bit weird.” 

Sakura was glad to know that much going in and found that everyone was rather nice. Hinata was really sweet although rather shy, so Sakura didn’t talk to her all that much. Kiba was really loud but he also let her pet Akamaru for ten minutes straight when she was feeling overwhelmed one day, so she decided she liked him. Shino was from the Aburame, which still kind of freaked Sakura out, but he kept control of his bugs and was otherwise alright. Sakura also recognized Yumi and Isamu, who she had played tag with before. And then there was Sasuke. Sasuke was one of the most amazing people Sakura had ever met. He was strong, brave, and cute too. Even Sakura had heard what had happened to the Uchica, but Sasuke still gave his all in training. Sakura couldn’t imagine how she would cope if her parents died, let alone everyone she was close to. Sakura never really got up the courage to talk to him, but she would someday. All and all, she liked her classmates and felt they were people she could rely on.

However, there was one exception: Naruto. Naruto was the most infuriating person Sakura had ever met. He was loud and always claimed he would be the Hokage, even though he couldn’t do basic jutsus. And he was forever bugging Sasuke. Like Naruto could ever compare to Sasuke’s skill! But even if she didn’t want to admit it, part of Sakura admired Naruto, in a way. He never gave up, no matter what. He seemed so confident even when he didn’t have the skills to back it up. And Sakura, who had spent most of her life being told what to do and what path her life would take, couldn’t help but look up to him. But he also made her feel uncomfortable. Sakura knew her parents didn’t want her to be a shinobi. They respected and were grateful for the shinobi’s protection but it was not an occupation they wanted their only child to take up. Her parents drilled manners into her that would help her in the life they laid out for her. Sakura didn’t fight with the boys except in training or yell too loudly because her mother said it wasn’t ladylike. She could never brag about her accomplishments for the same reason. She cried over the other girls mocking her for her forehead size. Despite the assurances Ino gave her, Sakura constantly felt like she could never actually be a shinobi. But then there was Naruto, who was way worse than Sakura in every area but still never gave up on his dream. He made her feel weak. So she rebuffed all of his attempts at friendship, not wanting to feel the way she did when she was around him. And for a while things were fine. Until Ino started behaving differently.

It’s not like Sakura needed Ino to spend all of her time with her, but they usually spent most of their time together. Ino would swing by Sakura’s house so they could walk to school together in the morning and she would walk her home in the afternoon. They spent lunch together and always partnered together when they had a chance. After Sakura was done with her chores and homework, she would usually visit the flower shop to see Ino. And on the weekends, they spent most of the day together. So Sakura noticed almost immediately when Ino started hanging out with her less. It wasn’t much, but it was obvious to Sakura. A couple of times she swung by the flower shop and Ino wasn’t there when she usually would be. She begged off walking Sakura home a few times a week. She had lunch with Shikamaru and Kiba, hiding behind the big tree. 

Sakura tried not to let it get to her. When they were together, it seemed like Ino still enjoyed her company, so surely she must still want to be friends with Sakura. But something had definitely changed. And then Ino started talking about Naruto. 

“I think Naruto’s finally getting the hang of the substitution jutsu,” Ino remarked one day when they had open practice. Sakura glanced over at Naruto, who did manage an alright substitution jutsu, but then got so caught up in celebrating, he tripped over his own feet. She shot Ino a look while the blond just giggled. “I guess it’s a work in progress.” 

That was deeply weird, but Sakura didn’t press Ino on it. As far as she knew, Ino wasn’t close to Naruto. Plus all of their classmates were trying different moves, some with much greater success than Naruto. Why had Ino commented on him in particular? And that was by no means the end of Ino’s fixation on Naruto. Sakura noticed she talked more to the boy over the next few weeks, even giving him some pointers like she did with Sakura. She stopped making fun of him when he messed up and would even glare at the other girls when they started gossiping about him. Sakura couldn’t make sense of this behavior. 

Surely Ino didn’t like Naruto, right? Sakura liked Sasuke and she thought Ino did too. That was alright because Sasuke never paid attention to any of the girls in their class so they could both like him without it being a problem. But Naruto would be only too happy if someone liked him. What if Ino started hanging out with Naruto more and didn’t have time for Sakura? Sakura worried over this for nearly a week before deciding just to ask Ino about it.

“Ino, do you like Naruto?” Sakura blurted out as the two of them were walking home from school one day. She had planned to be subtler but she got so anxious about Ino’s response that she just went for it. 

“I mean, I think he’s nice,” Ino answered hesitantly. “Do you not like him?”

“No, I mean yes, I mean…” Sakura trailed off, burying her face in her hands. “You really like him? More than Sasuke?”

Ino laughed, pulling Sakura’s hands away from her face, “I don’t like him like that, silly. If anything he’s like Shikamaru.” This reassured Sakura greatly. She knew Ino saw Shikamaru as an annoying younger brother who she needed to keep an eye on. “I just think I haven’t been very fair to him in the past and I want to be nicer to him going forward,” Ino explained.

“What do you mean by that?” Sakura asked. 

“Well, I would yell at him when he didn’t deserve it and never really took the time to try and understand him.”

“But he’s annoying,” Sakura protested. “Always claiming he’s going to be the Hokage when he can’t throw kunai straight.”

“Do you remember when we first started practicing together and whenever you couldn’t get something, you started to just give up and say you weren’t good at it?” Sakura did, although that was embarrassing to recall. “Remember how I told you that no one got it one their first try and I would work with you and we’d improve together?” Ino pressed further. Sakura nodded, not sure where this was going. “What would you have done if I wasn’t there?” Ino asked.

Sakura was taken aback, “I don’t know. I probably would have just given up and not tried to be a shinobi. It’s what my parents want anyway.”

“You should be whatever you want,” Ino told her fiercely. “Who cares what you parents want.” Sakura smiled, glad her friend believed in her. “But what if you didn’t have any other option? What if you didn’t have parents or anyone else to take care and you didn’t think you could be anything else?”

Sakura mulled that over for a little while. “I guess I would just keep giving it my all. It would probably make me really sad if I couldn’t succeed.”

“But you wouldn’t want anyone to know how sad you were, right?” Ino pointed out. “Because you would have to convince them and yourself that you could eventually do it. So you couldn’t let anyone see you doubt yourself or that might take that as an excuse to get rid of you completely. Does that make sense?”

Sakura nodded, understanding what Ino was saying. “So I would proclaim that I was the best even when I failed because I had to show everyone that I wasn’t beaten.”

“Exactly. Now, does that remind you of anyone we know?” Ino asked pointedly. 

Sakura finally understood what this conversation was about, “Naruto. Naruto is an orphan. And most of the village doesn’t like him.” Most was probably an understatement. She remembered her dad asking her if she was friends with Naruto and when she said no, he told her to keep it that way. 

“It would be bad for business if my family was seen associating with him,” he muttered as he walked away. The only place she had seen that honestly welcomed Naruto was the ramen stand. 

“Yeah,” Ino confirmed, “that’s the problem. Beyond his two friends who are also orphans, he really doesn’t have anyone to look out for him. And our class isn’t actually kind to him.” She sighed, “Look, I’m not saying you have to be friends with him. He can still be kind of annoying even if you understand where he is coming from. But just, try to be kind.”

“Is he why you have been busy for the past few weeks?” Sakura asked.

“Yeah. Shikamaru came up with a plan to help, but it’s taking a while to really get going. Most of the rest of this phase will just be encouraging our classmates to change their behavior without them realizing what is going on. So I’ll have more free time since we got all the background planning out of the way,” Ino explained.

Sakura was a little curious how many phases this plan had, but decided to leave that alone for now. It really wasn’t as important as the knowledge that Ino was now free to hang out like they did before and wouldn’t ditch her to hang around Naruto. 

With that in mind, she followed Ino’s lead on how to change her behavior. She honestly hadn’t realized how much she yelled at and complained about Naruto until she made an effort to stop doing so. It was kind of hard to break the habit. Ino assured her that was understandable and it would make it look more authentic if she gradually changed her behavior than if she just suddenly switched it up. Honestly, once she got over her knee-jerk reaction of annoyance, Sakura found she really didn’t mind Naruto. He was still loud, but she grew to appreciate his passion even more and found that listening to him made her feel more confident, even if she was having a bad day. If he wouldn’t give up, neither would she. And despite all her yellings previously, he didn’t even seem to bother Sasuke. Yes, he was constantly in his face, but Sakura noticed that Sasuke actually responded and paid attention to Naruto, which was more than he did for most of their classmates, herself included. 

So she kept changing her behavior and backing up Ino when she encouraged the other girls to stop gossiping about and yelling at Naruto. This mainly took the form of Ino diverting the conversation if it turned in that direction, with her throwing in a couple of genuine compliments of Naruto here and there. Most of the girls followed Ino’s lead and were fairly easy to sway. Sakura doubted they had really changed their opinions, but just didn’t voice them as readily. 

When she pointed this out to Ino, the other girl assured her, “Don’t worry. I know. But this is what they can do for right now and we’ll tackle the next step when we are ready for it. And no,” she said, reading Sakura’s confused face, “I don’t know quite what the next step is or when we know we are ready for it, but when it does come, we’ll be ready.”

Sakura felt good, knowing she was doing what she could to help but still felt terrible about the way she treated Naruto and that she had never formally apologized to him for it. She doubted an apology would really help, but she wanted to do something that made it clear to him that she was different from before. She racked her brains trying to think of some gesture she could make but never came up with anything. Luckily, the opportunity presented itself to her almost perfectly. 

Sakura felt pretty happy about her results in kunai throwing. She had hit the target eight times, and two even hit the center ring. All of that practice with Ino was really paying off. Pretty much everyone in the class was improving, some more gradually than others. Sakura was in the last group and it took her a minute to find one of her kunai that had missed, so most of the class had already moved on to the next station by the time she put it back. Naruto and Choji were the only ones left. Sakura remembered that Naruto had hit the target four times today. Which was an improvement for him, but still behind compared to the rest of the class. And he seemed to have really tried this time, instead of goofing off like he sometimes did. Sakura hesitated, not knowing if she should say something or if that would just make things worse, but decided she owed it to Naruto to try. 

“You’re improving,” she said, forcing as much cheer into her voice as possible. This was so awkward, but she had made her decision and was going to see it through.

“Huh?” Naruto shot back, looking confused. Sakura wasn’t surprised. She usually went out of her way to avoid talking to Naruto, so for her to engage with him when she didn’t need to must have thrown him off.

“You hit the target four times today,” she pointed out. “Last week you only hit it twice.” Naruto just kept staring at her, and Sakura needed to end this interaction now. “So keep trying,” she concluded, nodding to Choji before running to where Ino was standing.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Ino asked, patting her head.

“It was so awkward,” Sakura moaned. “And I don’t know if that was his fault or mine. What if I screwed up?”

Ino laughed at her, grabbing her hand to pull her towards their next station. “I don’t think you did. He seems really happy.” Sakura dared to glance over her shoulder and saw that Ino was right. Naruto was smiling even wider than usual and Choji was having to push him to get him moving. “Things will get less weird as you get used to each other,” Ino assured her. “This was a step in the right direction.”

“Do you think he hates me for how I treated him before?” Sakura asked, her voice small, after glancing around to make sure no one else could hear her. The next station was practice fights, which both took a while and attracted everyone’s attention so no one cared about the two of them talking in the back. Naruto had pushed his way to the front when he arrived, eager to see the action so he certainly wouldn’t overhear.

“I don’t think it even occurs to Naruto to get angry over how he has been treated,” Ino said, sounding sad. “It is all he knows. In a fair world, he should not have to put up with this and should be able to feel angry at us for what we did to him. But he does have to and he can’t feel angry. Like it or not, he is a part of this village and needs the other villagers to accept him. Anger, justified or not, won’t get him anywhere.” Sakura absorbed that and thought how awful that sounded. She remembered the few times she had gotten in fights because someone said something mean to her, she at least felt vindicated being able to be mad at them for a while until they apologized. If Naruto couldn’t even do that, how did he deal with everything?

“And that’s why we have to change everyone’s minds,” Ino said when Sakura voiced this thought aloud. “Naruto will keep trying no matter what but it shouldn’t be up to him to fight to be acknowledged by everyone. We have to make the way as easy as we can for him. I know you haven’t talked much, but I think you would be good friends. You both have a core of strength that amazes me. So keep trying, okay? We can make things better for him and that’s the best apology we can give him since it will never occur to him to ask for one.”

“You’re right,” Sakura admitted. “Okay, I’m committed now!” She exclaimed. 

“Anyway, what are you doing Saturday morning?” Ino asked.

Confused about the sudden change in topic, Sakura responded, “I don’t think I have any plans.”

“Good. You should come with me to practice with Naruto and his two older friends. If you want to get used to him, this should be a good way. You can spend time with him but still have a buffer,” Ino explained. “Plus practicing with Tenten will help your weapon skills way more than practicing with me will. She’s amazing. Are you game?”

“Sure,” Sakura agreed.

“Great. I’ll swing by your house at nine. I will warn you, Lee is pretty loud, but he’s sweet. If he and Naruto get to be too much, just signal to Tenten. She’s an expert at managing them,” Ino told her. Sakura nodded, a little unsure about what exactly she had gotten herself into, but not backing out now. She would see this through. She owed it to Naruto and to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's another long one because I love Sakura so much and could not contain myself. In case anyone was wondering about how I write my chapters, I usually start with an event in mind that I want to write, decided I need to build up to it, and then write pages of backstory before finally getting to the main event. It's a mess.
> 
> This story is meant to deal with the fallout of Iruka's absence in Naruto's life, but once I get my gremlin hands on canon, I feel the need to fix other things I had issues with. Ino and Sakura had such a cute friendship growing up, and then they throw it all away over some boy who never even talked to either one of them? That makes no sense and makes me angry. So I went a little overboard writing cute friendship shenanigans.


	8. Hinata

Hinata had spent most of her childhood longing for a companion. She was the daughter of the Hyuuga clan head, so most of the clan was rather overprotective of her. Add that to the fact that the Hyuugas tended to be rather picky about who they associated with, and she ended up with not a lot of options. Her shy disposition didn’t help matters since even then she did get a chance to meet someone her own age, she was very hesitant about approaching them and most of them got bored waiting for her and wandered away. She didn’t mean to be, but she just got so worried she would say the wrong thing that she scared herself out of saying anything at all. 

She had her clan and she loved them, but she wished she had someone outside of them to talk to. She knew she wasn’t as strong as her father wanted her to be and she wanted to have someone to discuss her fear of being a disappointment with. But she knew if she brought it up with any of her caregivers, they would just reassure her that she would get stronger and make her father proud. As much as she wanted to believe them, she found it hard. Of course, there was Hanabi, but her younger sister was her opposite in every way. Hinata loved her and she knew that Hanahbi loved her but Hinata didn’t know quite how to approach her. Although her sister was two years younger, their father had already started training her and seemed pleased with her progress, much more than he was with Hinata’s.

In the free time Hinata had, she would ask whoever was watching her to walk around the village with her. Although she still couldn’t join in the games other children were playing, she liked to watch them and their enthusiasm. One day, she vowed, she would be brave enough to ask if she could play too. Although she sometimes disliked the limitations her minders put on her, she admitted she was glad for their presence most of the time. They kept her safe. Unfortunately, she had wandered a little ways from Goro, who was watching her today away, and now regretted it.

“Weird eyes, weird eyes,” the boys around her yelled. She hadn’t seen them before and didn’t know why they were bothering her, but she was scared. She didn’t want to get into a fight, but they wouldn’t leave her alone. Besides, her eyes were the source of her strength, as her father said. She liked how they connected her to the rest of her clan. What was wrong with them?

As she curled in on herself, trying to find a reply, someone came to her defense.

“Leave her alone,” a blond boy kicked the leader in the face and put himself between them and her. 

“It’s not worth it, let’s get out of here,” the boy decided, holding his hand to his hurt face.

“Ha, that will show you,” the blond crowed before turning to her, “You alright?” he asked, reaching a hand to help her up. Hinata hesitated a moment before grabbing on and letting him pull her to her feet.

“Yes, I’m alright,” she stuttered out. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” the boy responded. “I’m Naruto. What’s your name?”

“Hinata,” she replied, “nice to meet you.”

Naruto grinned and she immediately felt herself give a small smile as well. How could she not when Naruto lit up like the sun? Maybe they could be friends, she thought desperately. He didn’t seem to mind how quiet she was and didn’t accuse her of being stuck up like some other kids had done.

“Lady Hinata,” came the yell from Goro who ran up to her and hurriedly checked her over. “Are you alright?” 

“I’m fine,” Hinata assured him. “Naruto helped me.”

If anything Goro looked even more displeased, taking her hand and pulling her away, “I’m glad you are fine, Lady Hinata, but in the future don’t speak to that boy.” Hinata didn’t have a chance to protest, as Goro pulled her back towards her house. She glanced back as they left, wanting to see Naruto. He was just standing there with a sad smile on his face. When he noticed her gaze, he waved before darting away.

Hinata spent a lot of time turning this encounter over in her mind. She didn’t understand why Goro reacted the way he did to Naruto. The boy had helped her and seemed kind. And no one would answer her questions, either. She asked several different clan members over the next week and all of them told her not to go near the boy. When she asked why, some just said he brought trouble while others said he was dangerous and could hurt her. While Hinata knew she had the tendency to see the best in everyone, but she just couldn’t imagine that the cheerful, helpful boy she had met was as terrible as everyone else thought. 

However, her minders watched her even more closely after that and she didn’t want to make trouble for them, so she did not see Naruto for a while- until her first day at the academy. 

Hinata was terrified for her first day, although she tried not to let it show. She had to make her father and her clan proud of her. This was her first pick step on her road to becoming a full-fledged shinobi. She couldn’t let everyone down. But as soon as she got into the classroom, she felt overwhelmed. There were so many people, most of whom she didn’t know, and everything was so loud. She saw Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Shino, all of whom she had met before, but none of whom she was close friends with. And she recognized Sasuke as well. She wasn’t sure if she should talk to anybody. Ino seemed to be deep in conversation with a pink-haired girl at her side, and Hinata didn’t want to interrupt them. Shikamaru was napping and Choji was munching by his side. Kiba was engaged in a wrestling match with one of the other boys and Hinata couldn't bring herself to get any closer to them. Shino was probably her best bet. He was sitting by himself, not engaging with their classmates. Although she wanted someone she could talk to, she would rather be by someone she knew than a complete stranger. And that was what everyone else in the room was. Finally, she decided to sit next to Shino. He acknowledged her with a nod but didn’t say anything.

Soon after, their teacher walked in. He broke up the wrestling match and ordered everyone to sit down. Finally, Hinata was able to recognize the boy Kiba had been wrestling with as Naruto. The two of them threw themselves into seats, apparently with no hard feelings. But Hinata couldn’t focus on that. Naruto was here! She could finally thank him. Maybe they could even become friends! He hadn’t minded her quietness last time they met. She knew her clan did not approve of him, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. Surely, they would understand that he was her classmate and wouldn't mind her spending time around him. 

Now came the larger problem. Hinata had no idea how to approach him. Naruto was so loud and full of energy while Hinata was quiet. They didn’t have much in common and didn’t share friends. Hinata wasn’t close with most of their classmates. She didn’t want to intrude upon Ino and Sakura and didn’t know how to befriend the other girls in their class. The person she was probably closest to was Shino, but they hardly ever talked due to how quiet both of them were. 

Hinata had hoped that Naruto would recognize her and approach her, but he hadn’t yet. They hadn’t been paired together on any projects and even in their practical skills lessons, they didn't interact much. Hinata kept trying to build up the courage to approach him, but she could never make herself do it.

“What if he doesn’t remember me? Or if he remembers and thinks I’m weak and doesn’t want to be my friend?” Hinata murmured to herself, as she tried to fall asleep at night. So, she didn’t say anything. She watched Naruto as he tried over and over again, never giving up. She listened as the rest of the class mocked him. She wished she would say something. But what would she say? Would people even listen to her? Every day she promised herself she would speak up, and every day when the time came, she couldn’t bring herself to. But she could never take her eyes away from Naruto. 

When she lost a sparring match to her cousin again, she thought of Naruto’s persistence and forced herself to get up and try again. When her father lectured her and she felt like a failure, she thought of Naruto and found the courage to move forward. Funny how much of her life revolved around this boy who she had only spoken to once.

Because she was so used to watching Naruto, she noticed before anyone else that something had changed. Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba had always been the closest to Naruto out of their classmates. Them hanging out with him wasn’t anything new. But Hinata noticed the way they treated him had shifted slightly. Not in a bad way. But Shikamaru seemed more contemplative when he looked at Naruto, Kiba invited Naruto to spend time with him outside of class more, and Choji had taken to bringing an even larger lunch than usual and sharing with Naruto. Hinata wondered what they were thinking, but wasn’t sure how to approach them. She worried they would find her watching creepy. 

Hinata watched the situation develop, hoping they could help Naruto when she never could. She felt beyond relieved when she realized Ino was in on whatever was going on. As much as she trusted the three boys, Ino was definitely the social leader of their class. If anyone could convince their classmates’ to change their opinions of Naruto, it was her. Ino had previously stopped yelling at Naruto and would now steer the conversation away from making fun of him when it came up. She even paid him some genuine compliments. Hinata watched in anticipation as the rest of their classmates realized this as well. She wondered how they would react. 

Most didn’t make a big deal out of it. People still shoot Naruto dirty looks and went out of their way to avoid talking to him, but they didn’t vocally make fun of him anymore, which was an improvement. Naruto seemed even brighter than before after a few weeks of this new normal.

And finally the day Hinata had hoped for and dreaded arrived. She was partnered with Naruto during class. It was nothing big, they just had to complete a worksheet together, but Hinata was internally freaking out. Mizuki needed to do something, he wasn’t clear what, and he ordered them to work quietly until he returned.

What should I say to him? She wondered. Should I finally thank him for helping me back then or should I just talk about the worksheet? 

“Hey, there,” a voice rang out. She glanced over and finally noticed Naruto had moved to stand next to her while she had been caught up in her thoughts. “You any good at history?”

Hinata felt a rush of relief that he started a conversation and asked her something she could easily answer. “Somewhat,” Hinata answered, “it depends on what clan is involved.” Her lessons at home had almost exclusively focused on the accomplishments of the Hyuuga clan, with some information about the founding of the village thrown in. She wasn’t confident in her ability to answer anything that didn’t fall into those two areas. 

“Well, that’s better than me,” Naruto said, sitting down next to her. Hinata desperately tried to control her tendency to blush and shutter. She really wanted Naruto to like her and he wouldn’t if she couldn’t focus on a simple exercise.

“Don’t worry too much,” Naruto assured her. “If we don’t know the answer, I’ll just throw papers at Shikamaru until he tells them to me. He’s sure to know them all.” Hinata glanced over to the boy in question, who was paired with Yumi, who was understandingly concerned. He seemed to be asleep and wouldn’t answer her despite her best efforts. Hinata glanced at Naruto who met her gaze, and shrugged, putting his hands behind his head, “Well maybe that will be plan C.”

Hinata couldn’t help herself from giggling.

“What, it’s not a bad idea,” Naruto defended himself.

“It'’s not that,” Hinata rushed to assure him. “It’s just… you never give up, do you? I think it’s brave of you.” Maybe sticking to a plan for cheating on an ungraded exercise wasn’t anything to be admired. Hinata’s caretakers would certainly think it wasn’t. But Hinata liked how honest and dedicated Naruto was.

Naruto grinned at her, "Of course. But maybe we should try and solve these first before using Shikamaru.” Since Shikamaru was still dead to the world and Hinata thought she could answer most of the questions, she agreed.

They worked well together, Hinata realized. She knew more of the answers than Naruto, but he encouraged her rather than doubted her. Since she was so hesitant, she was used to people assuming she wasn’t capable. But Naruto believed in her answers completely and even encouraged her to put her answer down when she wasn’t quite sure it was right. When they got stuck, he would frantically page through their textbook, trying to find the right period and clan. Finally, they were able to answer all but one question with a fairly high level of confidence. But they just couldn’t figure out that final one. It asked for the name of the Hatake’s clan leader’s younger sibling at the time the village was founded. After several thorough checks, they knew it wasn’t in the book and neither could remember their teacher ever mentioning it. Hinata was considering going through their textbook one last time when Naruto perked up.

When he noticed Hinata’s glance, he pointed in front of them, “Looks like we’ll be able to use plan C after all.” Hinata followed his gaze to see Ino storming up to Shikamaru, who was still asleep. Most of the class was watching with various levels of interest. It was a well-known fact that Ino was the only one who could get Shikamaru to do something if he didn’t want to do it and it was always something to see. Well, Choji could probably convince him too, Hinata supposed, but the other boy didn’t seem so inclined. He just let Shikamaru do what he wanted.

“Wake up, lazy,” Ino ordered, slamming her hand down on the desk next to Shikamaru’s head. He jolted up, with a yelp and nearly fell out of his char. “You’re being unfair to Yumi.” She turned to the girl, “Next time come and get me earlier. I was at the back of the classroom and didn’t see him. He knows better than this.” With a truly chilling glare towards Shikamaru, she went back to where she and Shino, her partner, had been sitting. Shikamaru didn’t look at all contrite, but he did take the paper Yumi offered him and wrote down some answers.

As soon as he was finished he started to put his head back down, but before he could, Naruto wrote the question they were struggling with on a piece of paper, balled it up, and threw it at him. Despite his difficulties with kunai throwing, he hit Shikamaru solidly in the back of the head. When he turned around to glare at him, Hinata felt herself blushing and looked down. When she glanced over at Naruto, she saw he was just grinning at Shikamaru and gesturing for him to open the piece of paper. Shikamaru sighed but did so. Although Hinata couldn't hear him, she knew he had muttered “Troublesome,” as he smoothed out the paper. He glanced back at Naruto, who was still gesturing at him and seemed to decide that giving in would be easier than resisting since Nauto was unlikely to give up anytime soon. He wrote something down, and then balled the piece of paper back up and threw it at them. It struck Naruto head-on and Shikamaru laughed as he flailed about for a second. Hinata also found herself giggling at Naruto’s antics.

“Ha, told you that would work,” Naruto bragged, smoothing out the paper. The name Tamiko was written on it. She and Naruto made eye contact and realized at the same second that neither of them knew the answer so they couldn't be sure if Shikamaru was right or not. Then again, it was Shikamaru and this was a better answer than just leaving it blank or wildly guessing. Hinata wrote the name done on their answer sheet, while Naruto hid the other piece of paper in his pocket. Since Mizuki still hadn’t returned, they didn’t have anything else to do.

Hinata desperately tried to think of a good conversation topic to get rid of the increasingly awkward silence. She really only talked about training and clan matters most of the time, neither of which were things she wanted to talk to Naruto about. Clan matters were personal and she didn’t want Naruto to know how badly she struggled with training.

Before she blurted out something about the weather, Naruto broke the silence, “Those boys haven’t bothered you again, have they?”

“Eh?” Hinata let out, surprised they were talking about the day they first met since Naruto had never mentioned it before. “No, they haven’t,” she assured him. “I wanted to thank you for helping me. It was very kind of you.” She wasn’t sure if she should apologize for what Goro said too, or if it would be better not to bring it up. 

Naruto gave a big thumb’s up, “Of course I would. They were being mean and you looked like you could use some help although I’m sure you were capable of beating them yourself.”

Hinata opened her mouth, not sure what she was going to say but needing to convey how much his help had meant to her, when Mizuki bustled back into the room, demanding they turn in their papers and head back to their regular seats. Hinata turned in their paper. When she turned to head back, she saw Naruto waving towards her. She just knew she was blushing terribly, but she returned his wave before hurrying back to her seat. Luckily, no one commented on it and she was able to calm down as Mizuki went over the answers. Hinata was unsurprised to find out that Shikamaru was right.

Hinata kept her conversation with Naruto in the back of her mind for the next few days. Whenever she felt discouraged, she just remembered Naruto’s smile and his belief in her. Now she felt she owed him even more, but wasn’t sure what she could do for him.

“Hey, Hinata,” Ino called out to her, gesturing for her to come sit with them for lunch. Hinata made her way over to where Ino, Sakura, and a few other girls were gathered. She was content to just sit quietly and listen to their conversations. Eventually, the conversation turned to which of the boys in their class was the worst partner when it came to academic exercises. 

Fuyako was rather passionate in her nomination for Isamu who apparently never did his homework. A few others voiced opinions for Shino because he was impossible to get a read on and Kiba because he was so easily distractible. Then Miku voiced the name Hinata hoped no one would, “I’ m going to have to go with Naruto. He’s annoying and isn’t all that smart either.”

“That’s not true,” Hinata burst out, surprising even herself. She felt flustered for speaking so forcibly and grew even more so now that everyone’s attention was fixed on her. “I-I just meant that…” she trailed off, trying to find some way to make them see how great of a person Naruto really was. She made eye contact with Ino who smiled gently at her and made an encouraging hand gesture. “I was partnered with him last week and he was really helpful. He listened to me even when I wasn’t completely sure and didn’t mind looking through the textbook for answers. It was nice,” she finished, knowing that wasn’t enough, but it was all she could bring herself to say.

“She’s right, he’s not bad,” Yumi broke in. “Certainly better than Shikamaru, regardless of how smart he is.” This set off a series of complaints about how hard it was to get Shikamaru to do anything, which thankfully averted attention from Hinata. As she tried to calm her racing heart, she also felt proud of herself. She had stood up for Naruto, just like she had wanted to do all those months ago to Goro. It might not seem like much right now, but no one insulted Naruto the rest of lunch and when they got assigned pairs for a project, Yumi actually looked pleased with having Naruto as her partner. Ino had given her a thumbs-up as they left for the classroom, and Hinata felt like she was riding the high of her little victory for the rest of the day. As she lay in bed that night, she made a resolution. She could not repay everything Naruto had done for her. Not yet at least. But she would do what she could for now. And one day, she’d show him how much he meant to her and be strong enough to support him as much as he had supported her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene of Hinata and Naruto's first meeting comes from canon, but I changed it because I wanted them to interact more during it.
> 
> Despite what you may think after reading this chapter, I don't ship Hinata and Naruto. I actually think them ending up together does a disservice to both of their character arcs. But Naruto is a huge source of inspiration for Hinata and I wanted to convey that.


	9. Interlude 2-Teuchi

Teuchi remembered the day Kushina had announced her pregnancy. She was eating her third bowl of ramen while Minato sat by her side. Teuchi and Ayame were used to her appetite by now and had started preparing her additional bowls before she even finished her first. When she asked for a fourth bowl, which was a lot even for her, Ayame asked her if she had a particularly tiring day, since she seemed even hungrier than usual. “Nah, I’m just eating for two now,” Kushina explained.

It took a second to process, but when it did, Teuchi dropped his towel and stared at her, while he could hear Ayame drop a plate behind him. “You mean you’re…” he gestured to her stomach.

She laughed at him, “Yeah, you’ll have another die-hard customer pretty soon here.” While Teuchi registered that Minato was arguing with her about when a baby could eat ramen, his mind wasn’t on their discussion. Kushina and Minato were having a baby! He could remember the first time they had come on a date to his stand. Even before that, he remembered Kushina as the fierce child who always complimented his ramen and sincerely promised him that she’d try to limit the property damage she did to his place if anyone ever picked a fight with her while she was there. And now they were having a child! He found himself fervently hoping for everyone’s sake that their kid took after Minato in personality. He loved Kushina, but if they had two people with her temper under the same roof, they would be rebuilding their house every week.

He was snapped out of his daze by Ayame elbowing him in the back. When he turned towards her, she gestured towards the couple. What did she- oh Teuchi realized. “Congratulations,” he exclaimed. “I am so happy for you.” 

“Congratulations,” Ayame also offered. 

Kushina and Minato stopped arguing and smiled at them. “Thank you. We’re very excited,” Kushina said. Then her eyes lit up with a dangerous gleam, “And I’m going to eat so much ramen over the next months, you wouldn’t believe it.” Teuchi had to laugh as Minato began what they knew would be fruitless protests. He didn’t think he’d ever seen the man win an argument against Kushina. They again most people didn’t.

True to her word, Kushina stopped by often in the next few months, usually with Minato by her side. Teuchi almost cried when they told him what they planned to call him. While he knew the name came from one of Minato’s teacher’s books, the name still meant a lot to him. He resolved to have a discount on narutos the week their child was born. Kushina would get a kick out of that. 

However, his plans never came to fruition. That fateful night, his stand like most of the village, was destroyed. Although both he and Ayame made it through relatively unscathed, the news that Kushina and Minato had both been killed deeply saddened them. In the months of mourning and rebuilding afterward, he didn’t give much thought to their son. He assumed the Lord Third had made arrangements. He looked forward to the day the boy would grow up enough that he could tell him about his parents over a bowl of ramen. But then the Third issued that proclamation forbidding anyone from telling Naruto who his parents were. And for the first time, Teuchi felt afraid for Naruto. 

Over the next few years, he didn’t see the kid at all. He had heard that Naruto had been sent to the orphanage, but that was it. Although he never forgot about the boy, he didn’t think about him as much as he did in the days following his birth and the destruction of the village. He had his business to rebuild and run and he didn’t know what he could do for the kid. So while he missed Kushina’s compliments and Minato’s presence, he adjusted to the new normal.

And then one day just as he was about to close down, he looked up and noticed a kid that could only be Naruto standing just inside the booth. He looks so much like Minato, was his first thought. And the rush of grief that burned through him at that thought nearly overwhelmed him despite it being almost six years since their deaths. Apparently his staring had scared Naruto, though, since the boy shrank back and turned to leave.

“Wait,” Teuchi called out. Naruto paused, looking back with eyes that reminded Teuchi so much of Kushina’s the first few times she had come in. Grasping around for something to keep the boy there but also make him feel safe, he asked, “Do you like ramen?”

Naruto took a few hesitant steps forward, “It’s okay, I guess.”

Teuchi clucked his tongue, “That just means you haven’t been having quality ramen. Sit down here and I’ll make you up a bowl that will change your mind.” This seemed to intrigue Naruto who drew even closer.

“I don’t have any money,” he responded.

Teuchi waved him off, “Don’t worry about that. I’m about to close up and if you don’t eat it, it will just go to waste.” Naruto finally took a seat and Teuchi went to work preparing the best bowl of ramen possible. Kushina had always liked the miso broth and he threw in a couple of extra narutos in just because.

When he put the steaming bowl in front of the boy, his eyes lit up, “That’s all for me?”

“Yes, enjoy,” Teuchi told him before getting back to cleaning. As he finished closing up the kitchen, he listened to Naruto make happy noises as he ate. When he turned back to him a few minutes later, the boy had already finished the bowl.

“That was so good!” he yelled out. “Does all your ramen taste like this?”

“Well there are different flavors, so not exactly like that, but I like to think they are all of the same quality,” Teuchi responded.

“There are more flavors?” Naruto exclaimed.

Teuchi chuckled, “Yes, you’ll have to come back again to try the others.”

“Really, you don’t mind?” Naruto asked. “Most people don’t like having me in their businesses.”

The way he said it so matter-of-factly broke Teuchi’s heart. “You’re welcome anytime,” he promised.

“Thanks, mister. My name’s Naruto and I’m going to be the Hokage someday,” Naruto proclaimed.

“I’m Teuchi and I look forward to seeing that,” Teuchi told him. Naruto grinned before running off into the night. Kushina and Minato would be so proud of his dream, Teuchi thought. 

After that, Teuchi saw Naruto at least once a month. He’d usually drop in right before they closed when there were hardly any customers. The first time Ayame had seen him, she nearly broke down crying on the spot. It took some quick talking by Teuchi to assure Naruto that he wasn’t being a bother and Ayame wasn’t upset with him. But after that, Ayame greeted him cheerfully and they would chat about their days. Naruto didn’t tell them much about the orphanage, but what Teuchi heard wasn’t good.

This opinion was only further cemented when Naruto told him he was moving into his own apartment right before he started at the academy. When he got the news, he smiled and told Naruto he would have to come to the booth the night he moved to celebrate because he knew that was what the boy needed to hear. However after Naruto left, he angrily cleaned and ranted to his daughter, “He’s six years old. I know the shinobi system expects way too much out of children far too early, but this is ridiculous.”

“I’m with you, dad,” Ayame assured him. And Teuchi knew she meant it. As much as scolded him about how constantly giving Naruto free or greatly reduced food was not a sustainable business model, she always added extra helpings to the boy’s bowls. Teuchi wasn’t too concerned about going out of business anytime soon even with Naruto’s appetite. Within a few days after Naruto’s every visit, Kakashi would come to the shop and leave far too much to cover his meal. Teuchi didn’t know why the other man didn’t approach Naruto directly, but he knew everyone grieved in their own way and let Kakashi do what he felt he needed to. 

The first time Naruto brought people with him, Teuchi was overjoyed. He had mentioned he had a couple of friends back at the orphanage, but Teuchi feared he was just making that up so Teuchi wouldn’t worry. But sure enough, here they were, Tenten and Lee as they introduced themselves.

Teuchi’s concerns about Naruto living alone were slightly lessened when Tenten told him they lived a floor down from him and looked after him. But he felt saddened that children barely older than Naruto felt like they had to take on this responsibility. 

He charged them the same very reduced rate he charged Naruto and when Tenten made a pointed gesture at the posted prices, he waved her off. “You’re helping him in so many ways,” he told her as Ayame distracted Naruto and Lee, “let me do this. I promise I’m not in danger of going under or anything.” She acquiesced and thanked him. Since then, they came in every other week or so, around closing time so they could chat more easily. As ever, Kakashi would make his way into the stand after the group's visits and leave an even larger tip, often dragging along his loud friend, Guy. 

During Naruto’s first year at the academy, Teuchi was delighted to hear the names of more and more classmates who Naruto viewed as his friends. He was worried that the prejudice most of the villagers felt against Naruto would be passed onto the next generation and Naruto would be an outcast even among his peers. He was glad to hear that that was not the case. Although he still worried about Tenten and Lee, who he had grown attached to over the course of their many visits, and who hardly talked about their classmates. 

“Another bowl please,” Naruto called out, holding out his empty bowl.

“Coming right up,” Teuchi responded as Ayame started to make one. Impatient as ever, Naruto tried to steal some from Tenten, who stabbed him with her chopsticks, and Lee who just held his bowl out of Naruto’s reach as the boy tried to cajole him into sharing. Teuchi grinned at their antics, reminded of the times Kushina would come in with her genin team and do the exact same thing. He’s got a lot of both parents in him, Teuchi thought, and I can’t wait to see what he will accomplish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt so bad when I realized as I started writing this chapter that I had no idea what Teuchi's name was and had to look it up. 
> 
> Teuchi's impressions of Naruto's standing with his peers is not the most accurate since Naruto doesn't want him to worry and so stretches the truth. But one day in the not too distant future, Naruto's going to drag the whole gang to get ramen with him and Teuchi and Ayame will be overjoyed. 
> 
> Kakashi is still failing at human emotions and interactions.


	10. Shino

It had been a fairly normal day for Shino up until he found himself cutting class for the first time ever to go on some half-baked rescue mission.

Morning classes had been fine. He got partnered with Hinata for an in-class exercise. He liked working with Hinata. She wasn’t unnecessarily loud or nosy. She had seemed rather distracted that day though. Shino suspected it had something to do with Naruto’s absence. He himself had been surprised when the blond hadn’t shown up to the academy. Naruto had never missed a day of school before and he hadn’t seemed sick or anything yesterday. Quite a few people in their class looked worried about his absence.

But Shino needed to focus on class and Naruto was probably fine. Just to be safe though, he sent out a few tracker beetles to see if they could find Naruto’s location. Although they could not find an individual’s chakra, they could sense the strength of chakra. He was glad it was Naruto they were searching for since his insects had told him that the boy had abnormally large chakra reserves. So he should be easy to locate if he is nearby. That done, Shino refocused his attention on their chakra manipulation lesson. Shortly before lunchtime, most of the beetles reported back, telling him that there were no sources of chakra as strong as Naruto’s within the walls of the village, but that they had sensed one in the forest to the east and some were investigating that. This news troubled Shino deeply. Naruto should not have left the village on his own, particularly not to go in that direction. Shino knew there had been a battle there recently and it was possible enemy shinobi were still around. He debated what to do with this information. He should tell Mizuki and let the teacher handle it, but he didn’t really trust the man. His insects didn’t like him and Shino trusted their judgment more than anyone else’s. Plus although he was not very close friends with Naruto, he did like him. Sure he was loud and could be tiring, but he thought Shino’s insects were cool instead of creepy like many did. And despite all his rough-housing with Kiba, he was careful not to accidentally squish any of Shino’s insects when he was near him. So Shino wanted to make sure Naruto was alright. He just wasn’t sure how to go about doing that.

Luckily, when they broke for lunch, he noticed most of the clan kids gathering by the old tree. Naruto was friendly with that group, and Shikamaru was part of it, so if Shino told them about what he had found out, they would surely help come up with a plan. With that resolve, he hurried over to the group.

As he walked towards them, he heard Kiba say, “We need to do something. No way Naruto would miss class over nothing.” 

“But we don’t know what’s going on or where he could be,” Shikamaru argued back. “I know you want to help but going off haphazardly could be dangerous. We need to wait for more information.”

This caused the group to dissolve into intense arguments about what the best course of action would be. Shino lingered on the outskirts of the group, trying to get their attention several times without success. Finally, Sakura noticed him. She patted Ino, who was next to her, on the shoulder, and once she got her attention, gestured at Shino.

“Everybody shut up,” Ino yelled out. The group instantly obeyed. They had learned not to cross Ino when she used that tone of voice. “Shino, hi,” she gestured for him to come closer. “Do you have something to tell us?” It was a fair question since he usually didn’t seek out other people.

“Yes, I believe I know where Naruto is and I think he might be in trouble,” he reported bluntly, not wanting to waste any more time when Naruto could be in danger.

“How-” Choji started to ask.

“That’s not important right,” Shikamaru cut in. “Where is he and why do you think he is in danger?”

“When he didn’t show up for classes, I sent out some of my beetles to check for him. They reported that the only source that matched Naruto’s chakra strength was outside the village, in the forest to the east. While some went to investigate that, I have not heard back from them.”

“East,” Shikamaru murmured, “that’s where the battle last night was. So that’s why you think he may be in danger.”

Shino nodded, pleased he did not have to explain further.

“Troublesome,” Shikamaru groaned before Ino cut him off with an elbow to his side.

“So what’s the plan?” Kiba asked, looking impatient.

“Telling Mizuki probably won’t accomplish much,” Ino pointed out. Shino had to agree with her. He had no idea why that man was a teacher but he didn’t seem to care at all about any of them, especially Naruto.

“Guess we have to take care of this ourselves,” Kiba said, not looking at all put out about the prospect. Akamaru barked in agreement.

Shikamaru sighed again, “Running off when we don’t have a good idea of what the strength of the threat is or even if there's one is not the best idea.” Holding up his hand to forestall any protests, he continued, “But it’s necessary in this situation. However, we can’t all go. Some people need to stay in the village and collect reinforcements and cover for us.” He paused, probably considering what the best arrangement would be.

“I’ll stay in class and cover for you,” Sakura offered. “My mom would freak if I tried to leave the village without her knowledge and Mizuki probably won’t be too suspicious if I’m the one telling him that you all had to leave.” It was a good point. Shino appreciated Sakura for her dedication, quietness, and general way of not causing trouble or loud noises. If Mizuki would believe anyone, it would be her.

“Thanks, Sakura,” Ino said. “Just tell him something came up and our parents needed us home right away to discuss clan matters.” It wasn’t the most believable lie, but hopefully it would hold up. 

“Shino, Kiba, Hinata, if you are willing to go, you have the best chance of tracking him,” Shikamaru decided. “I’ll come with you. Ino and Choji, find an adult who you think would be willing to help without delaying by asking too many questions. One of our fathers would be good or Kakashi if you can find him.”

“Akamaru and I are ready,” Kiba offered. Hinata looked far more nervous, but also said she would come. Shino knew he had to see this through to the end plus some of his insects were already there so they should be able to give him a much-needed estimate of any opponent's strength so he also agreed to Shikamaru’s plan.

“Hopefully, this is an overreaction, and Naruto’s just fine,” Shikamaru explained. “But be on your guard and if we encounter an enemy we can’t deal with, be ready to grab Naruto and run.” They all nodded, understanding the importance of being realistic.

“Oh, Sakura,” Ino added as they were about to leave, “after classes are done, can you find Tenten and Lee and tell them what is going on? I’m sure they’ll be worried if Naruto isn’t around after classes.”

Sakura promised she would before heading towards the classroom, ready to feed their excuse to Mizuki. Ino and Choji headed towards the main administrative building since that was probably their best bet for finding their parents or someone else they could trust.

The rest of them headed towards the east gate, staying in alleys as much as they could so no one would stop them and ask them why they weren’t in class. They ended up hiding in some bushes a little way away from the gate while Shikamaru came up with a plan to get them past the guards. Although they were more focused on keeping people out than in, Shino knew they would object to four pre-genins running off so soon after a battle. Luckily, the plan they came up with, which, after Kiba got impatient with Shikamaru’s complex planning just involved Akamaru running into the wall at full speed to attract the guard’s attention and then the rest of them running, ended up not being necessary. A group returned from a mission just as they were about to put their plan into motion and every member had rather serious injuries. One of the guards helped two of them to the hospital, while the other was talking to the third member a little ways off from the gate. By crawling on their stomachs, they were able to get out without anyone noticing.

Once they were out of sight of the village, Shikamaru turned to Shino, “Do you have an idea of where Naruto is?” he asked.

“None of the beetles that went ahead have come back to me, but I will send more out and since we are close, they should be able to tell us pretty quick,” Shino replied, already releasing more beetles. 

“Should we split up to cover more ground?” Hinata asked.

“Usually, I’d say yes, but since we don’t know the strength of the enemy and it’s not a huge area to cover, I think we’re better off sticking together,” Shikamaru responded. “Although if Shino’s beetles can’t get us a location, we might have to. Kiba, Akamaru, can you track Naruto’s scent? That way we can at least start in the right direction.”

“Count on us,” Kiba said, as Akamaru started sniffing the ground. Soon enough he let out a bark and took off towards the forest, with the four of them hot on his trail. 

“Hinata, can you let us know once you see someone?” Shikamaru requested once they had been running for a little while.

“Yes,” Hinata agreed, stopping momentarily to activate her Byakugan, scanning the area around them. “I don’t have a very large range, so I won’t be able to give you much warning,” she cautioned.

“That’s fine, just do what you can,” Shikamaru encouraged her.

A few minutes later, the first of Shino’s beetles returned to him. After listening to their reports, he told the others, “They found Naruto’s chakra. He’s northeast of here about a mile, near the river.” Kiba let out a yip of excitement. “However, there are also three other chakra sources near him. They cannot measure strength very well, but I think at least one of them is jonin level. They can’t tell anything about their abilities either.”

“I don’t like those odds,” Shikamaru murmured. “But if they’re close to Naruto, we have to do something. Hopefully, they won’t sense us coming.

They slowed their pace, knowing they needed the element of surprise. Shino was glad his father, and apparently everyone else’s parents, had taught them standard shinobi hand signals. As they crept closer, Hinata confirmed three enemies, surrounding Naruto and closing in fast. 

Shikamaru signaled for a hit and run, with him, Shino, and Kiba taking on one opponent while Hinata grabbed Naruto. That made sense, Shino thought. She’d be able to sense if someone was following them and find help if it arrived. He hoped Ino and Choji had succeeded in their task. 

Once they got within sight, Shino quickly grabbed Kiba so he would not abandon the plan and leap out to protect Naruto. He saw Shikamaru grab Hinata as well. Three enemy nin were surrounding Naruto, who looked pretty beat up. One of them was tying ropes around his wrists and ankles.

Shikamaru jerked his head at Shino who nodded and pulled Kiba around the clearing so they could surround the enemy. He knew he needed to keep a level head since Kiba looked to be barely keeping himself growling and attacking right away, which would not go well for them.

Once they got directly behind them, he let go of Kiba’s wrist and gestured at him to stay and wait for the signal. The other boy was obviously displeased, but he signaled that he would. Shino continued until he was west of Shikamaru and Hinata’s position then sent a few of his bugs out to let the others know he was ready. 

“Let’s just grab the kid and go. Who knows when someone will show up,” one of the enemy urged.

“I’ve got him, I’ve got him,” another replied, lifting Naruto up over her shoulder.

The third, who Shino guessed was the leader and the jonin his bugs had sensed, said, “Good. Let’s go.” As she turned towards Shino's direction, she suddenly halted.

“What-” the first member of the group got cut off as the leader punched her square in the face. Shino immediately leaped into action, sending a swarm of bugs at the face of the one who was holding Naruto. Luckily, she let go of Naruto to try and ward them off, giving him the chance to roll off her shoulder. Hinata was instantly there at his side, hitting Naruto’s captor in the stomach with a Gentle Fist before cutting Naruto’s ropes and pulling him away from the fight. Meanwhile, he noticed Kiba and Akamaru had jumped the nin who was still reeling from her leader’s punch and were grappling with her. Considering the amount of swears she was yelling, Shino guessed they were doing well. He sent another wave of insects at his target, and let out a sigh of relief when she went down. His father had only recently allowed him to cultivate his own paralyzing wasps and this was the first time he used them on en enemy. He was glad to see they were effective. He then sent another wave of them over to Shikamaru’s opponent, who he was struggling to hold in shadow binding. 

As he turned back towards the remaining enemy, Kiba headbutted her with such force that Shino could hear it all the way across the clearing and it made him wince. “Ha, take that,” Kiba yelled at his now passed-out opponent, rising to his feet. He nearly fell over but was able to right himself without help.

“You alright?” Shino asked, hoping that was the case because he doubted they would stay down for long and he really was not equipped to carry Kiba and run.

“I’m great,” Kiba proclaimed. “Mom says I have the hardest head ever. Apparently I regularly ran into walls head-first when I was crawling and never came out the worse for it.” Akamaru let out a yip that Shino took to signal his agreement with the statement. Shino decided to just accept that response and not ask the follow-up question of why his clan just let him run into walls if they knew he had that habit. His clan regularly left children with some of their parent’s bugs watching over them, which other people seemed to find concerning, so to each their own.

“Do either of you have anything we can use for rope?” Shikamaru asked. Shino searched through his pockets but came up with nothing. He resolved to start carrying around more supplies with him in the future. Kiba also shook his head. “Damn,” Shikamaru glanced out the enemy nin. “How long will the effects of your paralyzing wasps last?” 

“This is the first time I’ve used them outside of sparring with my father, so I am unsure how long they will last on a non-Aburame,” Shino admitted. “No longer than ten minutes, probably closer to five.”

“Then we need to move,” Shikamaru decided, already making his way towards the edge of the clearing.

“Shouldn’t we at least try to tie them up with, I don’t know, our coat sleeves or something?” Kiba asked.

“No, that would take too much time and they would easily be able to get out of them once they can move again. We need to put as much distance between them and ourselves as we can.” The urgency in his voice compelled Kiba and Shino to hurry over to him. Without a word, he turned and started back towards the village.

As they ran, Shikamaru explained, “Best case scenario, we meet up with whoever Ino and Choji managed to get as back-up. They should be able to handle enemies of this level easily enough. Worst case scenario, we’ll need to get close enough to the village that the guards sense us and come to help. Either way, we need to be able to stay ahead of them long enough to get to safety. We were able to catch them off guard, but even then we struggled to contain them. I don’t think we’ll be as successful the second time around.

After hearing Shikamaru lay it out like that, Shino admitted that was the most logical plan. Kiba seemed to agree and all of them dedicated themselves to running towards the village with all their might. More quickly than Shino had hoped, he heard sounds of pursuant. Apparently the limit was closer to five minutes than ten. He dodged to the side as he heard the sound of blades coming towards them, but still took a cut across his left arm. It wasn’t too deep, but it was still troubling. 

Kiba had turned and hurdled a smoke bomb at their rapidly approaching pursuers, which bought them a few seconds, but they were back on their trail soon enough. And Shino was familiar enough with these woods to know that they were not close enough to the village that the guards would be able to notice them and come help. He was about to unleash another swarm of paralyzing wasps, although he knew they would be less effective now that their bodies had experienced the toxin once, when kunai flew towards their attackers, from the direction of the village. The Copy-nin sprang into view, letting loose several more kunais as Shino, Kiba, and Shikamaru passed him. “Get to the village,” he ordered. None of them were going to argue with that and given what he had heard of the man, Shino believed he would be alright. Them sticking around would only create an unwanted and potentially dangerous distraction. They ran back to the village, the sounds of battle fading as they drew closer to the walls.

Just as they exited the forest and could see the village gates, a team of three came into view running in their direction. Shino recognized the leader as Shikamaru’s father, although he didn’t know the other two. “Kakashi is engaging three enemy nin about half a mile east of here,” Shikamaru reported without prompting. “At least one is jonin level.”

His father nodded, “Good work. We’ll talk when I get back,” he responded before running towards Kakashi’s location with his team. Shikamaru slowed the pace to a walk and looked about ready to lie down and take a nap right there. Kiba wouldn’t let him though.

“Come on, we have to make sure Naruto is alright,” he pointed out, dragging Shikamaru with him when the boy wasn’t coming fast enough for his liking.

“Ugh,” Shikamaru complained, “you know Hinata would not have let anything happen to him.” Despite his protests, he picked up his pace again and Shino followed after them. They ended up at what Shino guessed was Naruto’s apartment. He had never been there himself, but both Kiba and Shikamaru seemed to know where they were going. As often was the case with Naruto, he heard him before he saw him.

As Kiba banged on the door, they could hear Naruto yelling from the other side. Ino promptly opened the door looking amused. She intensely looked them over and asked, “Any injuries?” Shino wordlessly gestured at the cut on his arm, while Kiba reported he just had some bruises, and Shikamaru said he was fine.

Ino gestured at them to come in, “Tenten, where is the medical kit?”

A brown-haired girl that Shino vaguely recognized replied, “Bathroom cabinet under the sink. It should be on the right side.”

“Why don’t you ask me where it is?” Naruto complained. “It’s my apartment.” 

“True, but did you even know where it was before Tenten told me?” Ino asked. Naruto opened his mouth to protest but was unable to because Kiba had taken a flying leap and knocked him over.

“You’re alright!” he exclaimed. “What were you doing out there all alone? Want to come over and play with the puppies this weekend?” The sheer speed at which Kiba switched topics was quite frankly alarming and Shino could hardly keep up. But he was glad to see that Naruto looked unharmed. Hinata and Sakura were also there, looking amused at Naruto and Kiba’s interaction. Next to them was a boy Shino thought was a year ahead of them at the academy.

“I’m fine,” Naruto said. “Yes, I want to play with the puppies this weekend.” Then he looked kind of sheepish, “And I was out there because-”

“He’s an idiot,” Tenten cut it, glaring at Naruto.

“Tenten,” Naruto whined as Ino, who had just returned with the first aid kit let out a laugh. She gestured for him and Kiba to come over so she could make sure they were alright. As she bandaged Shino’s arm, he listened to Naruto’s account.

“I’m not an idiot,” he protested. “I was just going to get a used kunai from the battlefield. I didn’t know there would still be enemies there.” 

“Why did you want a kunai?” Shikamaru asked.

Here Naruto looked even more sheepish, which was not a look Shino had ever seen him wear before. He seemed to be considering if he could make a quick getaway, but Akamaru had flopped over his lap the second they had come in, and Naruto obviously didn’t want to stop petting him. “I heard some of the boys in our class talking,” he admitted. “They were daring each other to go get one. And I figured if I got one and brought it back, maybe then they’d…” here he stopped, seeming to realize that everyone’s gazes were on him, before obviously changing what he was about to say, “finally have to admit how cool I am.” It wasn’t hard to guess what Naruto originally intended to say- maybe then they’d be friends with me. But no one was willing to call him out on it. He looked uncomfortable even as it was.

“You’re still an idiot,” Tenten finally informed him, breaking the tension. “And don’t think you’re going anywhere without Lee or I coming with you for the foreseeable future.” Naruto promptly started complaining, but Tenten stood firm. When Naruto finally gave up convincing her otherwise, she turned to the rest of the room, “Do you have anywhere you need to be immediately?” All of them shook their heads, not sure where this was going. “Great. We’re going for ramen then.”

Naruto immediately perked up, “Yeah, Ichiraku is the best. Let’s go, let’s go.” He ran around the room, hurrying everyone out of his apartment. Everyone was pretty hungry so it didn’t take much effort to get them to agree. Shino didn’t know quite how the owner would react to ten children piling into his small stand close to closing time, but if anything he looked delighted.

“Naruto, Tenten, Lee, back again I see,” he remarked. “And you brought friends!”

“Hey Teuchi, hey Ayame,” Naruto yelled to the owner and the woman working in the back. She turned around to wave and grinned when she caught sight of their rag-tag group. 

“Naruto did something stupid and risky,” Tenten informed them. “And he’s in trouble.”

The owner glanced over at Naruto who was happily looking over the menu with Kiba and Choji, “So you took him out to his favorite restaurant.”

Tenten waved him off, “Nah this is just to thank his friends for helping him out. I’ll make him actually do some housework this weekend to discourage him from doing anything like this again. He’ll hate that. And favorite restaurant? You think mighty highly of yourself, Teuchi.” If possible, Teuchis face lit up even more at the word friends.

“I’m sorry, I must have missed the other restaurants you went to multiple times a month,” the owner teased back. “So what are you all having?” Everyone gave their order, and soon enough they had steaming bowls of ramen in front of them. Shino had never been here before but he made a mental note to come back. The food was good, even if ramen wasn’t his absolute favorite, and more importantly, the owner didn’t seem creeped out or even concerned by him. It was refreshing. 

Soon enough, however, their tiring day caught up with them. When Naruto nearly face-planted into his third bowl of ramen, they decided they should call it a night. While they offered to help Lee and Tenten get Naruto back home, they were waved off. “It will be a great opportunity for training,” Lee happily informed them, hosting a snoring Naruto higher up on his back. Shino wasn’t sure how he managed to be that enthusiastic at this time of day but was glad they could handle it. 

Ino left to walk Sakura home and Shikamaru and Choji broke off soon after that to head toward their clan compounds. Soon it was just him, Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru headed in the same direction.

“We made a good team, didn’t we?” Kiba remarked. Shino had to agree. This experience had been so different than what they learned about in the academy and he felt closer to everyone for having gone through it together. And combining his skills with Kiba’s and Hinata’s had made tracking much easier. “See you tomorrow,” Kiba yelled out as he ran towards his compound. Akamaru bumped Shino’s shin until he reached down to pet him and then demanded pets from Hinata before running after Kiba.

And then it was just Hinata and him. After walking in silence for a little bit, Hinata said, “Thank you, Shino.”

“For what?” he asked, caught off guard by her initiating conversation. “We all helped.”

“Yes, but you acted before anyone else thought to. We never would have been able to find him so fast if it wasn’t for you,” Hinata explained. “And they were so close to hurting him…” she trailed off, her voice breaking as she fought back tears. Shino hesitantly reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. He wasn’t big on physical contact himself, but it looked like she needed it. She smiled at him and calmed her breathing. “So thank you.”

Shino honestly didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t used to being recognized. But it did make him feel happy. Both that he was able to help out a classmate and that Hinata took the time to acknowledge his contribution. “You did well today too,” he finally responded. “We would have been in trouble if you hadn’t been able to get Naruto away so quickly and convince him to come with you.”

“Thanks,” Hinata said, her face going red. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” She hurried towards her home, waving at him. Shino waved back before continuing on to his compound. 

Just inside the gate, some of his father’s insects were waiting for him. They urged him towards his father’s home office. Shino went without protest, although he was so tired.

His father looked up as he came in, and beckoned him to sit down next to him on the couch.

“I heard you had quite the adventure today,” he commented. Shino nodded, but when he opened his mouth to elaborate, he let out a huge yawn instead. His father chuckled, “I’ll let you get some rest. You can tell me all about it in the morning.” Shino felt relieved. He was about to get up before his father gently pulled him into a hug, “I’m proud of you, Shino. You protected your comrades and fought bravely.” Shino let himself rest his head on his father’s shoulder for just a minute. He knew his father loved him, but they usually did not show it in this way. It was kind of nice. 

He barely remembered the walk back to his room before he passed out on his bed. The next morning arrived far too early for his liking, but he dragged himself out of bed anyway. He ate his usual breakfast before heading to the academy. Just before he reached the gate, he heard someone calling his name. Naruto was running up the path, with Lee and Tenten on his heels.

“Hey Shino,” the blond cheerfully yelled. Lee and Tenten also voiced their greetings.

“Good, we’ll leave him with you,” Tenten informed Shino. “Make sure he doesn’t wander off, will you? We have to get to class.” She ruffled Naruto’s hair and Lee offered a cheerful goodbye as they headed toward their classroom.

“They’re not letting me go anywhere on my own,” Naruto complained, although he honestly didn’t sound too put out. “They worry too much.” Considering how Naruto seemed to attract trouble, Shino thought they worried about the right amount. 

“Can you show me the bugs you used on those people from yesterday? Kiba told me about them.” Naruto asked.

“You mean the paralyzing wasps?” Shino replied.

“Yes, those things. They’re really cool,” Naruto answered enthusiastically. 

Shino was quite pleased. Most people didn’t like his insects. Certainly, no one outside his clan called them cool. He agreed to Naruto’s request, promising to show him after school today.

“And Shino,” Naruto said just before they entered the classroom, “thank you.” He threw himself through the doorway before Shino could respond. Shino found himself smiling to himself. Suddenly the days didn’t look as monotonous as before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just need you all to know that I had an alternate beginning of this chapter where Naruto doesn’t show up to a scheduled hangout with Kiba on a weekend and Kiba convinces all of the dogs in his vicinity to go look for him and conscripts Shino into helping him. The original start was “Shino’s day was going normally until he got run over by five dogs.” However, I wanted to include the rest of the kids and couldn’t find a good way to do that if they didn’t all start in the same place and wanted to discuss how they would handle having to disappear from school.
> 
> Shino is a really hard character for me to write, as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t do a three-page backstory on him before getting to the main point of the chapter. He just isn’t given much screen time or development in the show and so it was hard for him to get a handle on his personality. I always thought of him as someone comfortable with silence and content with his own company for the most part, but also wanted to be included. Like he might not go to hangouts all the time but he would want to be invited.
> 
> I realized partway writing this chapter that I really don’t understand what the Aburame’s powers are besides insects. A little voice in my head pointed out that I could look that up. The rest of me ignored that and just made something up that sounded quasi-legitimate and fit with what I needed to happen.
> 
> I’m going to have to miss the next update. I have finals this week and next. But I will be back in two weeks.


	11. Sasuke

Sasuke knew he wasn’t very close to his classmates. And most of the time he didn’t mind. None of them could really challenge him in fights and so wouldn’t help him get better. And he needed to get better. Despite the way most of the girls in the class seemed to gush over his skills for whatever reason, Sasuke knew he wasn’t nearly good enough yet. At this age, Itachi could already hit the center every time. Sasuke could only average nine out of ten. And if there was a strong breeze, he did even worse. He wasn’t strong enough. And he had to be strong enough next time. (Blood everywhere. His cousin slump against the wall outside, throat cut. The bodies lying in the street that he couldn’t bring himself to roll over and see who they were. Mother! Father! Again and again. No matter how well whoever had cleaned up his home had done, Sasuke would always see blood on the walls.) He couldn’t let his brother hurt anyone else. He had to avenge his clan. 

But as he curled up in bed, trying to force himself to go to sleep but seeing his parents' deaths whenever he closed his eyes, he found himself wondering if he would forgive Itachi, abandon Leaf and become a missing-nin if only his brother would hug him again and poke his forehead like he used to do. He did his best to rid himself of those thoughts, training from sun-up til sun-down to exhaust himself and reminding himself over and over again that his brother was his enemy and his mission was to kill him. Some days it worked but others, Sasuke would stare down at his shuriken, remembering the day Itachi had took the time to teach him how to throw them and carried him all the way home when he grew tired.

So Sasuke didn’t have time for friends. They would only slow him down and besides (Kill your best friend. Then come and find me. I will fight you then.) the few times Sasuke had tried to hold a casual conversation with a classmate, all he could picture was them on the ground covered in blood. And he was holding the sword that killed them. So he made an effort to avoid his classmates beyond what was necessary for class. This was his fight. He didn’t need to take Itachi’s advice on how to become strong. He’d find his own way. But it was better for him not to get close to anyone. Just in case.

And for the most part, it wasn’t hard. Everyone knew what had happened to his clan. His classmates generally knew to leave him alone. And even those who seemed impressed by his skills didn’t really try to talk to him. They just complimented him a lot. It seemed like a waste of time to Sasuke, and he thought they should have been focused on improving their own skills, but they didn’t ask for his opinion and he wasn’t going to volunteer it. 

There was, of course, one exception: Naruto. No matter what Sasuke did the other boy would not leave him alone. Sasuke had tried ignoring him, tried insulting his skill level (which wasn’t very hard), and tried to prod him towards an opponent who he was more evenly matched with. But nothing worked. Naruto would just show up the next day demanding Sasuke pay attention to him.

Sasuke would never admit it, but he honestly didn’t mind Naruto. He might even say he was fond of him, in a way. Naruto never wanted him to be anything other than what he was. He constantly challenged Sasuke, even if he had no chance of winning. And Sasuke found himself even more motivated to improve, if only because losing to Naruto would be beyond embarrassing. Naruto had been one of the few people who hadn’t tried to awkwardly express his condolences for what his brother had done to his clan in the days after he had returned. Sasuke still wasn’t sure what they were trying to accomplish. His brother had slaughtered his entire clan and then tortured him. Nothing could change that and their pitiful platitudes only showed him how much they didn’t understand him. If they really wanted to help, they would give him a challenge so he could get stronger. And while Naruto wasn’t really a challenge, at least he didn’t treat Sasuke any differently after it had happened. The very first day he was back, Naruto was in his face, telling him that he had been practicing his taijutsu and would beat Sasuke next time. Some of their classmates had yelled at Naruto to back off until Sasuke had glared at them. Practice would make him stronger and so Sasuke welcomed the opportunity. 

Sasuke could never tell Naruto that he was grateful. That could lead to conversations about feelings, which Sasuke desperately wanted to avoid. So instead, he agreed to Naruto’s challenges even if he was confident he would win. That seemed to be enough for Naruto.

Since Naruto was so loud, the day he didn’t show up for class, Sasuke quickly noticed his absence. Sasuke wondered where he could be. They were learning a new taijutsu form during afternoon practice and Naruto had been excited about it all week. So why wasn’t he here today? But Sasuke pushed it out of his mind. Naruto’s absence was of no importance. He needed to learn everything he could to even have a chance of defeating Itachi.

Naruto’s absence alone was easy enough to ignore. But when it came time for afternoon practice and they were missing six additional students, that was harder to brush off. Sasuke had noticed Sakura talking to Mizuki in the corner as lunch was ending. While he did not acknowledge the missing students, Sasuke overheard Sakura telling several of their classmates that clan business came up and their parents needed them to come home and help deal with it. Sasuke knew that was a lie. If something serious enough to require the aid of all the clans occurred, the clan heads would definitely not want their pre-genin children’s help. But he couldn’t think of why else they had all left so suddenly. In the end, he decided it wasn’t important and focused on the lessons for the day. But even then, he felt off-balance somehow. Everyone who could at least put up a good fight in a taijutsu match was absent and so he just ended up feeling frustrated.

So Sasuke resolved to get to the bottom of what was going on. Not because he was worried or anything, but just because this irritated him and he wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again in the future.

Since Sakura was the one who must have told Mizuki of their absence, she had to know what was going on. But how could Sasuke get her to talk? The few times they had interacted in the past, she had stuttered rather badly and was flushed red the whole time. Sasuke had wondered each time if she had a fever. But she had seemed fine when she wasn’t talking to him. Maybe she was intimidated by him? But, he remembered, she’d been better lately. She still acted strangely around him but focused more on her own studies rather than bothering him. However, he wasn’t sure she would tell him if he just straight out asked her. She was rather protective of her friends. And Sasuke was not particularly good at subtlety. 

Luckily, his dilemma solved itself when he noticed Sakura going up to two people in the year above them after school. He recognized the pair as the people Naruto regularly practiced with. Their normal practice spot was close to Sasuke’s, so he often saw them as he traveled to and from it. Surely, Sakura would feel comfortable telling them what was going on. So he followed them, making sure to stay far enough back that they wouldn’t notice him. When they got to their usual practice spot, Sasuke hid in a tree close to the edge of the clearing. He could hear what was being said but was far enough away that he wasn’t worried that they would notice him. 

Just as he got settled, he heard the brown-haired girl ask, “What’s this about Sakura? Where is Naruto? He was supposed to meet us to work on taijutsu today.”

“Sorry for being cryptic, I just didn’t want anyone to overhear us,” Sakura explained. “And Naruto’s location is the problem.”

What do you mean?” Asked the boy. “Is Naruto in danger? Does he need help?” He looked ready to start tearing off across the village in search of Naruto.

“Lee, calm down. I’m sure Sakura is about to tell us, right?” The older girl asked pointedly. 

“We think Naruto might be in trouble. He never showed up for class and Shino, you know the Aburame who is in our class, said his bugs had sensed Naruto’s chakra outside the village to the east. Apparently there was a battle there last night and everyone was worried that some enemy shinobi might still be hanging around,” Sakura hurriedly explained. “Shikamaru, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba went to follow Naruto while Ino and Choji went to find back-up from a full-fledged shinobi. That was at lunchtime. I’m sorry, I don’t know anything beyond that. But I promise they will do their best to keep Naruto safe.”

“We know they will, Sakura,” the boy who Sasuke now knew was Lee assured her. “We appreciate you telling us. I’m sure Naruto is in good hands. Don’t you agree, Tenten?”

“I’m going to murder him,” Tenten responded, fiddling with a kunai while smiling in a rather unsettling manner. “He told us he was meeting with Kiba for some project before school so he wouldn’t walk with us this morning. He lied to us and now is off in who knows how much danger probably for some stupid reason and there is nothing we can do to help,” by the end of her rant, she was breathing heavily and clenching her fits. “When he gets back, he is not going anywhere without us knowing about it for a long time.” Neither Lee nor Sakura commented on the tears she was angrily wiping off her cheeks.

Sasuke was considering leaving. To go train, of course. And he hadn’t practiced in the forest to the east of the village lately. That would be a good challenge. Just as he was about to sneak down from the tree, Ino and Choji burst into the clearing. 

“Did you find someone to help? Is Naruto alright?” Tenten demanded.

Choji was panting heavily and had collapsed onto the ground as soon as he saw the others. Ino was doubled over and trying to catch her breath. She held up her finger to signal she needed a moment. Everyone waited impatiently for her to catch her breath. “I don’t know how Naruto is yet,” she started off with. “I still haven’t seen him and I haven’t heard from Shikamaru or any of the others. But we were able to find help. We ran into Kakashi on our way to find our dads and told him what happened. He immediately went after them. And we found Shikamaru’s dad as soon as we entered the mission desk building. After we explained what was going on, he took two shinobi and left.” Maybe training outside the village today wasn’t necessary, Sasuke decided. He knew of the Copy-nin who had a Sharingan and was sure he could handle himself. And Shikamaru’s dad was the jonin-commander. So he must also be very capable. And they probably wouldn’t want any more pre-genin outside the village right now so going would just be a waste of Sasuke’s time. He was better off just going to his regular spot.

So he turned away from the group in the clearing, ignoring the way Lee had his arm around Tenten’s shoulders and she was holding on to him with everything she had, how Sakura was hugging Ino and Choji and whispering thank yous over and over again. Sasuke didn’t need friends, they served no purpose. And his curiosity had been satisfied. Things would go back to normal tomorrow since everyone would be back. He hurried to his training spot since he knew he had wasted valuable time satisfying his curiosity and was behind on his training regime for the day. He practiced until it was too dark to see, throwing kunai and shuriken for a while before moving to the lake so he could practice his fireball jutsu. It still was so weak. 

As he made his way back to his house after he was forced to quit for the night, he decided to walk by Naruto’s apartment. It wouldn’t hurt to make sure that idiot actually got home so Sasuke would know for sure whether he would be bothering him tomorrow, he rationalized to himself. He knew where Naruto lived because he had followed him back one time after he had seen him also shipping alone in the marketplace. Sasuke knew his circumstances were unusual and orphans were usually not allowed to live by themselves when they were so young. Sasuke suspected the elders feared Itachi would return to kill him at any time and so allowed him to live in his old house that was on the outskirts of the village so the risk of collateral damage if Itachi did come for him was low. That was fine with Sasuke. He welcomed the chance to fight him and avenge his family. But he wondered why Naruto was living alone.

Sasuke had swung by Naruto’s apartment a few times after that, mainly to make sure dead last didn’t have more life skills than him. He did not. Naruto appeared to live on cup ramen and wilted vegetables and never closed his curtains. When his two friends moved into an apartment in the same building, the meals got a lot nicer but Naruto wasn’t cooking them so Sasuke assured himself he was still better than Naruto at living alone.

Today, Naruto’s apartment was dark when Sasuke checked it. He hesitated, not sure what to do. Should he break in to see if Naruto is there or leave it and wait until tomorrow? Just as he was about to open the window, he heard Lee’s voice down below. Peeking down, he saw the boy carrying Naruto on his back while Tenten walked beside him. He didn’t bother sticking around after that since he had gathered the information he needed. Naruto would be back in school the next day. He curled up in his bed with his parents’ robes draped over him. If anyone asked the third one was one of his cousins’. He laid with his eyes wide open, knowing exactly what he would see if he closed them. Eventually, his exhaustion caught up with him and he was able to drop off to sleep for a few hours before rising to practice some more before school started.

As he had predicted, when he walked into class that morning, Naruto was his usual self, yelling that he would beat Sasuke. Sasuke rolled his eyes and ignored him as usual. There was some tension that even he was able to pick up on. Ino was glaring rather fiercely at a trio of boys who Sasuke honestly didn’t remember the names of. Sasuke idly wondered what that was about and whether it was related to Naruto’s absence yesterday at all. 

Today they were continuing with the chakra control exercise they had been working on for the past week. Sasuke hoped they moved past it soon. He had mastered it within the first three days, the second one in the class to have done so. He kept up the motions of practicing so Mizuki wouldn’t bother him but was really practicing the hand signs for some fire jutsus he had found in one of the scrolls in his parents’ room. 

It was after the end of their practical lessons that Sasuke discovered the answer to his earlier questions. He had volunteered to put their targets away after they were done for the day. This allowed him to take a few of the practice kunai for his own use. He’d return them the next time he put the targets away and no one would ever miss them. They weren’t great quality, but Sasuke figured if he could make an old, bent one fly true, then doing it with a new, high-quality one would be much easier. Plus the weapon sellers tended to get worried if he tried to buy weapons from them. He didn’t want to get called into another meeting with the Hokage where the old man asked how he was feeling and if he was taking proper care of himself, not just practicing all the time. That had been rather annoying though thankfully nothing had come of it. So Sasuke used the multitude of weapons that were stored in the house and whatever additional weapons he needed he borrowed from the academy. 

As he was putting the last target away, he heard a voice from behind the shed. He quickly exited the shed and climbed up the side, wondering who would be here at this time. Most people would already be heading home. He climbed up the roof and peeked over the top to see who was below. He was a little surprised to see Ino had cornered three boys from their class who she had been glaring at earlier. 

“So, what’s this I hear about you daring each other to get a kunai from a recent battlefield?” Ino’s expression was setting off all of Sasuke’s threat instincts. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that could be?”

“We weren’t going to actually do it,” one of the boys protested.

If anything that seemed to make Ino even madder, “Then you shouldn’t have said anything at all. You never know who could be listening and what they might do. Understood?” The three of them nodded frantically. “Good. Don’t do something like that again or I will be very displeased.” Sasuke honestly didn’t blame his classmates for tripping over themselves to agree before fleeing in terror. He pressed himself flat against the roof and kept his head down until Ino left. She was a lot scarier than he had originally thought. He tried to remember if he had ever partnered with her for drills. He didn’t think so. She usually partnered with Sakura, if he remembered correctly. Maybe next time he’d try and partner with her? It would be worth dealing with the squealing if he got a good fight. 

However, the next time they got to practice hand-to-hand combat with each other, Naruto instantly claimed Sasuke as his partner. Although Sasuke tried to protest, by the time he was able to make Naruto let go of him, pretty much everyone else had already partnered up, so he just gave in.

Sasuke was pleased to discover that Naruto was improving. He was still shaky on some of the more advanced techniques and got so excited when he pulled off a move he must have been working on for some time that he forgot about their fight in favor of celebrating. But he was able to knock Sasuke off his feet once, although Sasuke had quickly kicked his feet out from under him and pinned him immediately after. This was certainly better than their last fight when Sasuke had pinned Naruto 10 seconds in. Then again, it had been some time since their last match. Naruto struggled uselessly for a little bit before just scowling up at Sasuke, refusing to concede until Mizuki called for them to finish up for the day. 

Sasuke let go of Naruto and stood back as the other boy stood up and dusted himself off. “I’ll win next time,” he yelled at Sasuke.

“Sure you will,” he responded. Naruto just growled at him before turning to leave. “Hey,” Sasuke called out before he could stop himself. Naruto turned back towards him. “What is your training routine?” Naruto had improved a great deal in a relatively short amount of time. Sasuke had never seen him do anything that unique when he passed Naruto and his friends, but maybe he just hadn’t come by at the right moments. Although Naruto was still nowhere near Sasuke’s level, maybe some of his training strategies would be useful to him.

“Huh?” Naruto asked, looking confused. “I practice a lot. And spar with Lee most days and throw kunai and shuriken with Tenten. Sometimes I make up my own moves too. And we go out for ramen a lot.”

Sasuke took it back. Naruto was an idiot and no help whatsoever. Who included the fact that they ate ramen in their explanation of their training regiment? 

When Sasuke did not immediately respond, Naruto offered, “You could come train with us on Saturday. Then I’d get another chance to kick your ass.”

Well, Sasuke couldn’t let that stand, “Like that will ever happen, idiot. And I don’t want to train with you.”

“Why? Are you scared?” Naruto taunted him. Before Sasuke could tackle him Naruto called out, “Hey, Shikamaru, you’re coming to train with us on Saturday right?” 

Shikamaru, who had been walking past him on his way to the gate sighed and came over, “Yes. I know Ino and Sakura are coming as well. Choji’s busy and Kiba had to check.”

“I invited Shino as well and he said he would come,” Naruto informed them. “And Sasuke said he would come as well.” 

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at the two of them, “Did he now? That should be interesting.”

Sasuke scowled at Naruto. Backing out now would only make him look like a coward, which he definitely wasn’t. So he guessed he had to train with them on Saturday. And he had intended to start on some taijutsu techniques that their class hadn’t learned yet on that day too.

“We meet around nine,” Naruto told him. “In a clearing to the… east of the market,” he looked confused, trying to orientate himself.

Sasuke just stared at him. He knew where Naruto trained. He passed them all the time. And it was definitely not to the east of the market. “I’ll be there, idiot. Learn your directions,” he told him before walking off.

“Hey,” Naruto protested behind him, but Sasuke just kept moving. Maybe something useful would come from this training session. And if not, he could leave. It’s not like anyone there would be strong enough to stop him. 

Some part of him was looking forward to it, in a weird way. Usually, he didn’t talk to anyone during the weekends, except maybe some sellers if he had to stop by the market. It’s not like he wanted to be friends with any of them, but having training partners could sometimes be useful. Itachi had some, he knew. So he would go and learn what he could from this. At the very least, it gave him more opportunities to show Naruto how much stronger than him he was. Even if the idiot never seemed to get it. With that settled, Sasuke set off to his own training area to practice throwing kunai at moving targets until the sunset. He would have his revenge. Any training method that could potentially give him an edge over Itachi must be explored. That was why he would train with Naruto tomorrow, not because Naruto’s bright voice and smile made the shadows engulfing him seem just the slightest bit smaller.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I firmly believe that before Itachi effortlessly destroyed Sasuke and basically told him he hadn't accomplished anything in the years since the massacre and without Orochimaru's minions whispering in his ear, Sasuke truly didn't want anyone else to get hurt in his mission for revenge.
> 
> Sasuke's conception of his skills was always interesting to me. I've always thought that he never thought of himself as a genius. Itachi was a genius and he is just always not good enough. So he doesn't necessarily see himself as strong, he just sees others as weak, before Naruto eventually makes him realize that isn't the case. Sasuke probably wouldn't let himself celebrate mastering a new skill because he knows it's still not enough to beat Itachi. He is up there on the list of kids with the most fucked up childhood, considering the village seems to have just kind of left him on his own without any support system.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has left comments and kudos, they really make my day!


	12. Lee

Lee liked his teacher. Aya was strong, dedicated, and kind. Maybe that’s why it hurt so much when she sat him down after the first day of his third year at the academy and told him he should give up on becoming a shinobi. 

She started like so many adults did by saying, “I only want what is best for you and chasing after this dream of being a shinobi will only hurt you more in the long-run. You cannot mold chakra at all. And even your taijutsu skill is mediocre. You would be nothing but a liability. I’m not telling you to quit the academy. You can still learn a lot of useful skills here. But you need to seriously think about your options when you are unable to advance to a genin.”

Lee had sat through many of these lectures over the years. From the orphanage caretakers to parents of classmates whose children had told them of the hot-headed loser and his lack of ability. He always thought the worst part of them was how they treated his failure like a forgone conclusion. Like it didn’t matter how hard he worked because he was destined to fail. They told him to think about being a farmer or shopkeeper like those positions could ever mean as much to Lee as being a shinobi. They didn’t understand. Being a shinobi was all Lee ever wanted. To have the ability to protect others would mean so much to him. He was an orphan with no special talents. He constantly found himself having to work two or three times harder than his peers to just master lower-level skills. But if he was shinobi, that would all be worth it. So he practiced until dark every night. He knew Tenten worried about him and he felt bad about that, but he knew she also understood. The look on her face when she mastered a new weapon or hit the target every time was the same look he had when he finally correctly performed a move or beat his previous time for running around the village. Not being a shinobi was never really an option for them. Naruto was the same way.

Lee didn’t know when he first met Naruto. They had met when they were still too young to remember. So for as long as Lee could recall, Naruto was there. But he could distinctly remember the specific interaction with Naruto that had cemented their friendship. 

Lee knew that a lot of people thought he was weird and annoying. His peers didn’t exactly try to hide their opinions in that regard. So the caretakers at the orphanage would often send him outside to run around in an attempt to let him burn off some of what they termed excess energy. Lee didn’t mind. Getting the chance to run around was better than having to sit quietly all evening. He remembered that day he had wanted to climb the old tree on the orphanage's grounds. The caretakers always told them not to, but Lee felt it would be good practice and they didn’t watch him very carefully. So he had done laps around the orphanage for a little while until the person assigned to watch him had gone back inside. Then he made his way over to the tree. After a few false starts, he was finally able to grab onto the lowest branch and pull himself up. From there, it was fairly easy to just keep climbing. He got lost in the motions and didn’t realize how high he had gotten until he felt his arms getting tired and let himself rest on a branch for a minute. He was taller than the second story of the orphanage! He decided to stop there for the day. The next few branches looked too small to support his weight and if he fell, he could get hurt and he would get in trouble for climbing the tree in the first place. As he slowly made his way down, he realized that someone else was in the tree. He vaguely recognized the blond boy clinging to the lower branches as another resident at the orphanage. But he didn’t know his name. But that could be easily fixed.

He swung down to the branch next to the other boy, “Hi. I’m Lee. What’s your name?” The other boy apparently hadn’t known that someone else was in the tree because he started badly, whipping around to stare at Lee, which startled Lee so much that he let go of the branch he had been holding and fell out of the tree. Not one of his most graceful moments. At least they were pretty close to the ground, so he didn’t injure himself too badly. He’d probably have bruises for a couple of days, but luckily nothing felt broken he noted as he picked himself up and brushed himself off. He turned to apologize to the blond for scaring him, but before he could a caretaker came rushing out. He couldn’t remember her name. Lee had always had trouble with names and all the caregivers acted similarly, so it was hard for him to differentiate them.

She glanced at Lee before turning to the other boy who had jumped down after Lee had fallen, “Naruto, did you push Lee out of the tree?”

“I didn't, I swear,” Naruto responded. But she didn’t care and had already grabbed him to pull him towards the office of the head of the orphanage for punishment. 

That caused Lee, who had been so shocked by the turn of events that he hadn’t moved at all, to snap out of it, “Naruto didn’t push me,” he yelled, needing to get the attention of the caregiver who was still scolding Naruto. “I fell out of the tree. He didn’t hurt me. And anyway, I’m fine. So he shouldn’t be in trouble.” The caregiver turned to look at Lee, seeming to evaluate what he said.

“Fine. I’ll let it slide this time. But both of you know you are not supposed to climb the trees. Don’t do it again or you won’t be allowed to come outside by yourselves.” She stormed off while Lee let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t too worried about the threat. Whenever he was too loud after lights out or scared a couple that was looking to adopt, they took his after-dinner outside privileges away. That usually lasted a day or two at most before they sent him outside again. Lee didn’t mean to cause them stress. He just had a lot of energy and couldn’t get rid of it sitting inside all day.

He noticed the other boy was glancing his way and decided he needed to reintroduce himself, “Hi, I’m Lee. Do you like climbing trees too? I figure it’s good practice for being a shinobi. They spend a lot of time in trees.”

“I’m Naruto,” he introduced himself. “You want to be a shinobi too?”

“Yes,” Lee responded eagerly, excited to have someone to talk about his dream with. “They’re the coolest, aren't they?”

The two of them happily chatted until someone stuck their head out and yelled at them to come inside. As they were doing so, Naruto’s stomach let out a loud grumble. “Did you not eat dinner?” Lee asked.

Naruto looked down, “They said I was bad and so didn't get dinner. But I didn’t do anything. One of the caretakers looked upset and I wanted to make sure she was okay, but when I came over, she started crying more.”

That sounded horrible to Lee. He hated it when other people cried and he couldn't do anything and then to be blamed for it on top of that? “Come with me,” he instructed Naruto. He made his way through the groups of kids reading or playing games before bed until he found who he was looking for. Tenten was in her usual corner, sketching something. Lee hurried up to her, glancing back to make sure Naruto was still with him.

“Hey, Lee,” Tenten greeted him absentmindedly before getting a good look at him, “what happened to you?” She asked once she looked up, gesturing at the dirt on his clothes. 

“I fell out of a tree,” Lee cheerfully reported. “I’m okay, just a few bruises. Anyway, did you save anything from dinner? This is Naruto and he didn’t get any.” He gestured for Naruto to come closer as he explained the situation to Tenten.

Tenten didn’t answer right away, instead staring intently at Naruto for a while. Her inspection seemed to make him rather nervous since he was shifting back and forth. Eventually, Tenten nodded to herself and pulled a couple of slices of bread from her pocket. Lee had shifted backward as soon as the food appeared, making sure to keep his body between the caregiver watching them and Tenten and Naruto. He was used to this routine and knew how to angle his body when Tenten gave him food she snuck out, but Naruto didn’t yet so Lee would cover for him. Lee usually got fed, but sometimes the caregivers said he was being too disruptive during mealtimes and sent him outside. Tenten would always put something small in her pocket and give it to Lee later. She always waved off Lee’s thanks, but Lee still told her every time, wanting to make sure she knew how much he appreciated her and her help.

Naruto looked between the food in Tenten’s out-stretched hand and her face, “That’s for me?” he asked hesitantly.

Lee could see Tenten soften at the question. “Yes, it’s for you. Although you need to take it and eat it quickly before anyone else comes over.” Naruto’s hand darted out and grabbed the bread, stuffing the whole thing into his mouth. Lee was honestly concerned he was about to choke. 

But he swallowed it just fine and grinned broadly at them, “Thanks. I was really hungry.”

“If you miss meals again, come and see us,” Tenten ordered him. “We will usually have something.” Not quite true, since they usually only pocketed food if they knew the other (almost always Lee) hadn’t eaten since they didn’t want to do it more than necessary and increase the risk of getting caught. But Lee figured they were about to up their game since he barely remembered seeing Naruto in the dining hall. And he was their friend now so they had to look after him.

“Do you want to be a shinobi, too?” Naruto asked Tenten eagerly.

She sighed and glanced over at Lee, “Another one of you dreamers, huh?” Lee just nodded. Having friends that shared your passion was a wonderful thing! “Yes, I do,” she answered Naruto’s question.

“We start at the academy next year,” Lee said.

Naruto looked very impressed by that. “It’s more like a year and a half,” Tenten corrected. 

Naruto didn’t seem to find the difference important, “Lucky. I have to wait over two years,” he complained. Their conversation was cut short because they were ordered to turn in for bed.

Over the next few weeks, Naruto became part of their little group. Lee appreciated having someone who had as much energy as he did and liked to play fight. Tenten would roll her eyes at them but joined in half the time, so Lee thought she was enjoying herself. Naruto was just as impressed as Lee with Tenten’s accuracy with the misshapen shrunken they had found abandoned near one of the training fields.

Although all the boys slept in one room, they were separated by ages and so Lee didn’t really see Naruto after they had retired for the night. He did notice that Naruto was way in the back, next to the drafty window. He must be awfully cold, he thought. It was approaching winter and their blankets weren’t very thick. Finally, the boy in the bed next to Lee had just been adopted. Lee knew that meant his bed was up for grabs since the caretakers wouldn’t bother to re-assign it. He went over to Naruto and asked if he wanted the bed at least for the night.

Naruto frantically shook his head, “I have to stay here. They’ll get mad at me if I don’t.” Lee was surprised by this response. As long as they didn’t cause trouble and weren’t noisy after lights out, the caretakers didn’t really care who slept where. Sure, they had assigned beds, but people swapped all the time and Lee had never seen anyone get in trouble for it. 

Naruto seemed oddly certain and Lee didn’t want to get his friend in trouble so he didn’t press harder. But he hated leaving Naruto over there in the cold. He thought it over for a few days and realized the solution. Naruto couldn’t move...but Lee could. The next night while Naruto was brushing his teeth, Lee offered to switch with the kid who slept next to Naruto. He leaped at the chance to move away from the windows, and by the time Naruto got back, Lee had settled into the bed next to him. He grinned happily at Naruto and motioned him over. Naruto looked a bit hesitant. “Won’t you be cold?” he bluntly asked. Lee waved him off. His passion for life and his love for his friends would keep him warm, he explained. “I really don’t think that’s how it works,” Naruto replied somewhat skeptically. 

But what’s done was done. As Lee pointed out, “It’s not like your previous neighbor would be willing to switch back.” Naruto glanced towards the middle of the room and saw him looking quite comfortable on Lee’s old bed and had to admit Lee had a point.

Despite Naruto’s concerns, Lee found that this arrangement suited them both much better than the previous one. Lee enjoyed having someone to talk to as he tried to fall asleep and Naruto was an eager audience, while the other boys would have just told him to shut up and buzz off. Well, he did still often get told to shut up, but never by Naruto, and if he managed to whisper, they could get away with it. Naruto seemed happier as well and had given up protesting when Lee draped one of his blankets over Naruto each night. Lee knew the caretakers might take it away if they saw what he did, but luckily he was an early riser and would put it back on his bed when he got up so no one ever suspected a thing. This continued until Naruto was told to sleep in the broom closet. It made no sense to Lee. Naruto wasn’t even four and wasn’t a bad kid. Sure, he got in trouble a lot, but those were silly pranks or just the caretakers not liking him. He wasn’t cruel or dangerous. 

Lee was glad Tenten agreed with him. She was a good friend. And honestly, Lee enjoyed their new sleeping arrangements even more than the previous one. Now he had all his precious people in one place and they could talk without being told to shut up by the other kids. Sure, it was a bit of a tight fit, but he liked being close to his friends. It made him feel content and at peace with himself. 

And so they settled into a routine. Sleeping in the closet at night, eating as much breakfast as they could since the caregivers were usually too distracted in the morning to find excuses to shoo them away from meals early, going to the boring classes. Lee understood that knowing how to read and write were important for being a ninja, but it was so boring. He still gave it his all because he would not allow himself to give less than 100% to any task, but he was always thrilled when they were dismissed for lunch. They ate quickly (and Tenten usually stuffed some portable food in her pocket. Their food pilfering incidents had necessarily increased once Naruto joined their group. Lee was very impressed by his friend. He always sat right next to her and half the time he didn’t even realize she had taken something until she pulled it out later) and then got to do whatever they wanted for the afternoon. Lee and Naruto were always the first ones outside, with Tenten close on their heels. They would play tag or try to practice punches and kicks. If the caretakers weren’t watching closely, they could sneak away to one of the big trees near the fence and climb it. They accumulated an impressive assortment of bruises and cuts from that venture, but it was worth it. They were lucky Naruto healed so quickly, since he would often get distracted and fall, accumulating the most injuries out of the three of them. Lee, of course, collected his fair of wounds too, but he didn’t mind. They were proof that he was growing stronger and trying his best. Tenten was the surest on her feet and would often hang upside on a branch to tease them as they tried to catch up with her. 

But finally, the event that Lee was desperately waiting for arrived: Lee and Tenten’s start at the shinobi academy. Civilian children were given a week-long pre-session before their first year of school officially started. They were taught some basic taijutsu, how to handle weapons, and the basics of chakra. Lee thought it was great that their teachers were helping them catch up with clan children and those with shinobi parents. Tenten, more cynically, thought it was so that the courses could be taught at the clan kids’ speed and if anyone protested, the teacher would just say they hadn’t tried hard enough to keep up. Tenten had a very different outlook on life and people than Lee did.

Every day that week Tenten and he would leave right after breakfast and be at the academy until after dinner. They would then drag themselves home and barely keep their eyes open long enough to eat and wash up before collapsing in exhaustion. Although he was sad he didn’t get to talk to Naruto much that week, Lee did enjoy the training. This was his first step on his journey to being an amazing shinobi! And he learned so much. Chakra was so interesting. Lee couldn’t wait to learn more about it and see what he could accomplish once he was able to control it. 

Their pre-session passed by in no time at all and finally, it was time for their first official day of school. Lee was so excited he could barely sleep the night before, tossing and turning, imagining what his classmates and the lessons would look like. Tenten had woken up and chided him about getting proper rest after one look at his face, but even she couldn’t muster up the will to actually lecture him today. They said good-bye to Naruto after breakfast and promised that they would tell him all about their day when they got back. The academy only ran until mid-afternoon so they would be able to actually spend time with Naruto when they were all conscious going forward.

Despite Tenten’s accusation that Lee was the single most optimistic she had ever met, even he was willing to admit that after the first month that the academy was not going nearly as well as he hoped. Not that he was giving up, but he let himself admit that he was disappointed. Lee knew other kids found him weird. He never made many friends at the orphanage and people would swap seats so they wouldn’t have to sit next to him. He didn’t let it bother him. He had Tenten and Naruto and their steady friendships were more than enough. But he had hoped to make friends with some of his classmates. Having more practice partners was always a good thing. It became rather obvious early on that that wasn’t going to happen. The person who he sat next to on his first day mocked his eyebrows and called him loud. Lee tried to understand that he might just be having a tough day, but it still hurt. And any other connections he might possibly have made went out the window as soon as it became apparent just how bad Lee was manipulating chakra. He practiced every day, for hours on end. But no matter what he did, he could not master the most basic chakra control exercises. He couldn’t even feel his chakra the way their teacher, Aya, said he should be able to. 

While Aya had said they would wait until everyone was ready before proceeding further with lessons, after two weeks of waiting solely on Lee, they moved on without him. And Lee tried to keep up, he really did. But since he couldn’t even master the first chakra control exercise, he couldn’t even understand what was going on half the time. Although he still hadn’t given up on molding chakra, he tried to make up for his weakness by exceeding in other areas. He read their history assignment over three times but still forgot the name of the Second Hokage when he was called on. Apparently most other people found his handwriting hard to read. So he put most of his effort into taijutsu. Even if he was still struggling with chakra control, he could still excel at taijutsu. Despite his best efforts, it became obvious that Lee wasn’t the best at that either. He watched in awe at how graceful Neji was and quickly he could master new techniques. Lee constantly felt like he was going to collapse after practicing for hours on end and still not getting what seemed to come so naturally to his classmates.

Three months into their first year, Tenten stopped him as he was heading outside to practice chakra control exercises after dinner. “How are the exercises going?” she asked him.

“I am sure with some more hard work, I will be able to master them,” Lee responded. 

Tenten nodded, seeming to be at a loss for words, “Look, Lee, can you do something for me?’ Lee agreed without hesitation. “Can you think about what you want?”

“I want to be a shinobi,” Lee replied without missing a beat.

“Yes, but beyond that,” Tenten prodded. “When you think about being a shinobi, what do you think about?”

Lee considered that question seriously, “Well, it’s about fighting and protecting your friends and people who rely on you. You can form bonds with other shinobi and protect the village together.” 

“Yeah,” Tenten agreed, “and do you need to use chakra to do any of those things?”

Lee opened his mouth to respond before closing it again, did he? He had never heard of a shinobi who didn’t use chakra, but he supposed it was possible.

“I’m not telling you to give up on the chakra exercises,” Tenten told him, holding his gaze. “That's a decision you need to make for yourself. But you spend a lot of time on them, with no real signs of improvement.” Lee appreciated that Tenten didn’t look at him with pity when she said that. She just stated it as a fact. “And you could be using that time to practice something else. Just think about it, alright?” She patted Lee on the shoulder and walked off. 

Lee spent the time he would usually spend on chakra exercises to think about Tenten had said. He had been growing frustrated with the exercises. No matter how much time Lee put into them, he never showed any improvement. At least with taijutsu, the amount of time he practiced had an effect on how well he did. Lee knew he had improved in taijutsu over the last few months. So it was a better use of his time. And he didn’t need chakra to be a great shinobi. He would train and train until his taijutsu would be enough!

When he excitedly told Tenten his resolution that night, she smiled broadly, “I believe in you,” she sincerely told him. This promptly caused Lee to burst into tears and pull her into a tight hug. Since Naruto didn’t really understand what chakra or taijutsu were at this point, he was a little confused, but still very excited. “Yeah, we’ll be great shinobi together,” he cheered. Lee’s classmates were nowhere near as supportive, but Lee got used to ignoring their jeers. They just didn’t understand yet. But they would, he would show them and help them understand his resolve. Anyway, they were already helping him on his mission since their taunts provided him even more motivation. So while Lee’s first year at the academy showed him his path to being a shinobi was far from the one he expected it to be, it didn’t dampen his resolve one bit.

Second-year was even more exciting because Naruto could also attend the academy. Although they didn’t see each other much during the day, Lee enjoyed walking with him to and from school and helping each other practice. Naruto’s energy levels matched his own and so they were a good match as training partners. Tenten often had to remind them to hydrate and eat something. Without her, they probably would have practiced themselves into exhaustion and forget to eat entirely. 

Lee was so happy to discover that Naruto was making friends! The first few weeks he didn’t talk much about his classmates, beyond complaining about a boy named Sasuke who was apparently good at everything much to Naruto’s annoyance. But soon enough Naruto was telling stories about wrestling with Kiba or Shikamaru helping him with his homework or Ino telling him about flower language. Lee took care to memorize each of the names Naruto said. These were his dear friend’s friends and their friendship meant so much to Naruto. 

One day after they had retired to their apartment after a wild dinner of Naruto recounting everything he had done that day, Tenten said, “He doesn’t need us like he used to.”

Lee glanced up, trying to read her tone and body language. He wasn’t too good at it, but he felt like for this conversation it might be necessary. But she didn’t seem upset, maybe a little wistful, but not mad. “No, he doesn’t,” he replied. He remembered when Naruto relied on them for everything: companionship, training practice, even food. But now he had many other friends who could help him in ways they could not. Lee recalled the night a couple of weeks ago when Naruto had told them he wasn’t hungry at dinner. Lee had become very concerned, checking to see if Naruto had a fever while Tenten was frantically going through the food in his fridge to see if he had eaten something bad. Naruto had waved them off, “Choji’s mom is trying new recipes and made way too much. He gave me a lot of it at lunch today. I’m still full.” They had left him with a plate of leftovers just in case he got hungry later, which knowing Naruto he probably would, but Lee had thought as they went back to their apartment that they could never provide Naruto enough food that he would feel full hours after the fact. Shikamaru was smarter than both of them and could teach Naruto history way better. Sakura could cheer him up way easier than Lee or Tenten could. “But that’s not a bad thing,” he continued. “We’ll always be here for him and you know he’ll never abandon us.” Naruto clung to his friends fiercely.

“You're right,” Tenten admitted, before giving him a truly terrifying grin, “Guess we’ll have to become amazing shinobi so we can keep looking after him.” Lee enthusiastically agreed. So they threw themselves into practicing even harder than before. Naruto’s classmates often joined them and Lee enjoyed getting to know them. Ino got along very well with Tenten but was also willing to fight Lee. When they could get Shikamaru to stop cloud watching and join in the practice, he was a dangerous opponent that Lee loved getting the chance to test himself against. He learned how to find points of weakness in his opponent’s guard by watching Shikamaru’s fighting style. Kiba was always willing to wrestle and Lee loved Akamaru. Choji would always bring food for their breaks and made a good team with Shikamaru when they did two-on-two matches. Sakura was a little shy but was slowly opening to the group as time went on. Lee had never personally met Hinata but she seemed like a kind person from what everyone else said about her.

So when Sakura told them to follow her after Naruto failed to appear one day after school, Lee had relaxed as soon as he had heard that most of the rest of their practice group had gone for help. While he hated the sense of powerlessness he felt, he believed Naruto would be alright because their friends were helping him. Instead, he focused on supporting Tenten. He was glad everything had turned out okay and enjoyed meeting Shino, who had helped rescue Naruto. 

So he was not surprised to hear that Shino planned to attend their Saturday training session the next week. However, he was rather shocked to hear that Sasuke was coming as well. Although he heard about the other boy pretty much every day, he had never met him. And from what everyone else said, it didn’t seem like Sasuke practiced with others usually. But Lee was proud Naruto had convinced him to join them! Training with others was also very helpful and more fun. Tenten thought Naruto had blackmailed or otherwise threatened Sasuke to get him to join, but after Naruto protested his innocence several times, she gave up.

Sasuke was already there when they arrived shortly after nine the next morning. No one else was there yet and Naruto immediately went over to bug him until Tenten yelled at both of them to come over and stretch. She pulled Naruto over to be her partner so Lee bounded over to Sasuke to ask him to stretch with him.

He looked rather surprised, “Don’t you stretch before your training session?” Lee asked, feeling rather concerned. He had learned the importance of stretching over the years, particularly given how physically demanding most of his exercises were. 

“Yes, of course, I do,” Sasuke replied. “I just don’t usually stretch with other people.”

“That’s alright,” Lee quickly assured him. “I can show you some cool partner stretches.” Before Sasuke could protest, Lee dragged him a little ways from Tenten and Naruto. Despite Naruto’s various complaints about Sasuke, Lee found him to be a rather accommodating partner. “I look forward to practicing with you,” Lee informed him when they were done, throwing an arm around his shoulder. Sasuke tensed up and Lee was about to withdraw and apologize. He knew not everyone appreciated physical contact as much as he did and he was usually good at asking before initiating it the first time, but he just got so excited by the promise of a new training partner he had forgotten. But before he could move away, Sasuke relaxed and leaned against his arm a little bit. As soon as Sakura and Ino arrived on the scene, dragging Shikamaru behind them, Sasuke moved away. Shino joined soon afterward.

After that, their training session went like normal. They ran through a few moves that all of them were familiar with and helped each other if anyone was struggling. They threw kunai and shuriken, with Sasuke adding a few more to their battered collection, to Tenten’s delight. After a few hours and a water break, they moved on to individualized practice. Tenten sat down towards the edge of the clearing and started working on some seals. They had been introduced to seals last month, and Tenten was really taken with them. She had checked out every book available on them in the library and was practicing making her own now.

Sakura, Ino, Shino, and Shikamaru were practicing together and Naruto and Sasuke were sparring. Lee felt tears welling up in his eyes. His friends were so full of enthusiasm and determination! He would equal their resolve! Lee decided to work on a new move instead of joining one of the groups. Although he loved practicing with others, he had learned that it worked best if he mastered any new moves he wanted to try separately before trying them on others. That way he knew he could control it and wouldn’t injure his friends seriously. The new move he had just started working on was a series of kicks and punches. They weren’t too difficult individually, but transitioning between them while keeping a solid defensive posture was giving Lee trouble.

Lee ran through the sequence a number of times, losing track of what everyone else was doing as he worked. He distantly heard yelling and Tenten threatening to make Naruto cook for himself if he didn’t stop screaming at Sasuke, but other than that he was completely focused on his own training. Some parts were going much better but he still couldn’t get the final transition. He kept falling over or ending with such shaky balance, it messed up the last move. He was so intent on his practice that he didn’t notice Sasuke had appeared in front of him until he nearly punched him in the face. Luckily, he was able to divert his punch, and Sasuke dodged anyway, but Lee still felt bad, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t keep proper track of my surroundings and almost injured you.” Lee knew being aware of his surroundings was a necessary shinobi skill, but he would often get so focused on his training that he would forget. 

“It’s fine,” Sasuke answered. “Can you show me what you are working on? It’s similar to something I saw in a training scroll and wanted to try.” Lee was overjoyed. No one was as interested in taijutsu as he was so he usually practiced alone beside the practice spars. 

Lee grinned broadly at Sasuke, “Of course. I have still not mastered it, but with hard work, I will soon.” He ran through the sequence a few times while Sasuke watched, slowing down the parts he could so the other boy would get a better idea of what he was trying to do. Sasuke then joined in.

Lee didn’t know how long they had been practicing side-by-side when he took a short break to drink water and watched Sasuke. He was amazed at what he saw. This was Lee’s third day practicing this technique while Sasuke had only started today. But he was already close to the point where Lee was. Lee felt a wave of bitterness rise up in him. “Lee, am I doing this landing right?” Sasuke called out to him. Lee pushed the feelings away and walked Sasuke through the process to the best of his ability. He then went back to his own practice and let himself feel again. He always worked through his thoughts best when he was moving. 

Lee knew he wasn’t a genius. And despite what his classmates seemed to think, he wasn’t stupid either. He understood that natural talent existed. How could he not when there were people like Neji, Shikamaru, and Ino all around him? He knew he didn’t really have much of it. He knew he had to work much harder than others to even have a chance of keeping up with them. It often felt unfair and frustrating. But Lee refused to let those emotions overpower his resolve and kindness. Sasuke didn’t deserve to be the target of Lee’s negative feelings. So he would work extra hard right now and sweat them out! By the end of this training session, they would be out of his system.

Shortly after that, Tenten called them over to eat and the afternoon passed quickly with them rotating through partners for spars. Lee had an interesting spar with Ino that ended with him pinning her when she tried her clan mind-transfer technique and failed. She laughed it off and told him she'd get it next time so he better be ready. Lee told her he looked forward to it. He then fought Shino and lost very quickly because he didn’t want to crush any of his bugs, which rather limited his options. Shino assured him that it was alright, but Lee still didn’t want to hurt creatures that were obviously important to Shino. Lee didn’t mind getting banged up every day, but he always bounced back and Shino’s bugs couldn't.

Lee didn’t get the chance to fight Sasuke, but he did make sure to talk to him before the other boy left. “I enjoyed training with you,” he told him. “I hope we can work together sometime soon.” Sasuke had nodded before hurrying off but had come back the next week and every week since then. Lee heard from Naruto that Sasuke would occasionally join them for lunch too. He had no doubt that a beautiful friendship would soon bloom between Sasuke and the rest of them.

Lee knew he was not what anyone thought of when they thought of the ideal shinobi. He knew he wasn’t a genius or even very good at taijutsu yet. But he wouldn’t give up. He would give everything he had in order to become a shinobi. And whenever he felt like he couldn’t get up again, he remembered his dream and the people who believed in him and found the courage to rise once more.

So when he told Aya, “Thank you for your concern, but I know what I am going to be,” he meant every word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can't tell by the length of this chapter, I absolutely adore Lee. I've always found him and Team Guy in general so compelling because they're people who have had to fight for everything they ever achieved, in very different ways. Not to say the Rookie Nine have it easy, but most of them are from children of clan heads who probably got special training from a very young age, Naruto is a jinchuriki which gives him access to power beyond most people's imagination, and Sakura has the best chakra control out there. In terms of purely learning techniques, we don't really see them struggle the way we see Lee do unless it's some new monster technique. Plus this is Lee pre-Guy when he doesn't have a role model who believes in him and shows him how he can fight without chakra. It's just him with pretty much everyone around him telling him to give up on his dream. I got so interested in him and his motivations that I kind of lost track of Naruto in the second half of the chapter. Whoops.
> 
> Also, am I the only one who thinks Sasuke and Lee would make good training partners? They have very different fighting styles, obviously, but are both very driven, focus on direct, close corridors fighting, and could help each other improve. Plus, Sasuke wouldn't feel compelled to talk much since Lee could keep the conversation going all by himself.


	13. Interlude 3- Kurama

Kurama remembered. The humans thought he was just some mindless beast. Something to be used, beaten, and contained. But he remembered a time long before any of them had settled down into their pathetic villages. He remembered their father, the other bijuu, his human brothers. He remembered how helpless he felt when Asura killed Indra. And then that man who seemed so much like Asura had had him chained inside some puny human. The humans might have thought they locked Kurama away but he saw everything and plotted for the day he would regain his freedom and make them suffer for daring to do this to him.

Needless to say, his revenge did not go as he had hoped. Sure, he had gotten free from the red-haired brat as she had given birth, but that Uchiha bastard had enslaved him. He had wanted to destroy that useless village, but he wanted to do it for his own satisfaction, not as just another piece in humans’ power struggle. And then his previous prison and her annoying husband had shoved him into their brat with a seal he had no chance of breaking anytime soon, particularly not with half of his chakra sealed away elsewhere. 

So he had settled down to watch as the kid grew up, biding his time to allow himself to recover his strength and the seal to weaken. For the first several years, he was not really aware of the outside world. He was forced to draw his power in so he could recover. He did this for a while until something started bothering him. He ignored it at first, but it wouldn’t go away and he couldn’t figure out what it was. By this point, he had regained a substantial portion of his strength so he decided to unfurl himself and figure out what this strange feeling was. He knew he had felt something like it before but it was much stronger and harsher than before. He quickly determined that nothing in his space had changed so it must relate to the brat who was his prison. The seal might currently prevent him from forcing his chakra through it but it did nothing to prevent him from seeing the outside world, just as it did not prevent feelings from his prison from reaching him. He was only able to be a passive observer, but that should be enough for now.

So he pushed against the seal and felt part of him slipping through. And then he could see through his prison’s eyes. The brat wouldn’t feel him or know he was there, but Kurama could see everything he could and the feelings were even stronger than before. Because of that, he was finally able to recognize the sensation that had disturbed him. He had felt it before when the red-head had trained all day without breaks or seemingly all the times in the months leading up to her demise. Hunger, he remembered. The brat apparently hadn’t eaten in a while. Well, that was irritating. How dare this puny human not take care of himself to the extent that it bothered him? Sadly, Kurama was not able to communicate his displeasure to his prison just yet. But he could look around and see what was going on outside.

The brat was outside by himself. Ignoring that for the moment, Kurama noticed the surroundings. They were near a large building on the outskirts of the village. Kurama didn’t really recognize the area, so it must not be somewhere his previous prison went frequently. Or maybe, he thought, letting himself smile, he had destroyed this area so thoroughly in his attack that they had to completely rebuild it. While that was all very interesting, it didn’t answer the question of why the brat was bothering him by not fulfilling his bodily functions. It looked to be near sundown. Wasn’t this was one of the customary times for humans to eat? So why wasn’t his prison? Kurama quickly grew irritated when the brat just continued to walk around the yard and try to climb the trees. He was about to retreat when suddenly another human came rushing up to them.

“Hey, Naruto,” he yelled out, coming up right next to Kurama’s prison. Kurama quickly grew bored while they talked about their days and lessons. “Oh, here you go,” the other human reached into his pocket and pulled out an apple and some crackers, which he handed to the brat. “Tenten was able to snag you some cookies as well. She’ll give those to you later.”

“Thanks, Lee,” the brat said, chowing down on the food. Since that solved Kurama’s discomfort, he decided he had seen enough and sank back down again. Unfortunately, it kept happening. It seemed like the brat was constantly hungry. Kurama had taken to seeing through his prison’s eyes more and more often. He figured out they were in some kind of home for children, an orphanage he remembered it being called. Which meant there were a lot of brats running around all the time. The only two he really took note of were the boy from the first night and the girl that had been mentioned. They were constantly around his prison, while the rest of the kids avoided them. And the adults were rather irritating. Lots of yelling and sending the brat outside without supper. Kurama considered if he could break the seal at least for a little bit to try and terrify them into giving his cage more food. It was inconvenient for Kurama to be constantly bothered by the brat’s digestive tract. Over the years, Kurama got better at ignoring the sensation, but it was always there. Until one day he woke up and realized he hadn’t felt it in a little bit. Curious despite himself, he decided to take a peek at the outside world. When he did, he was surprised and pleased to discover that they were no longer at the orphanage. It was a small space, but at least the brat was the only one there and so he didn’t have to listen to other screaming children. Soon enough, the two from before came barging in and the yelling started, but they at least brought food with them.

At this point, Kurama had regained most of his strength. Now he just had to wait for the right moment to break out. Until then, there wasn’t much he could do to occupy himself besides watch the brat’s life. Of course, he didn’t bother to watch all the time. Humans weren’t that interesting and his prison was no exception. He got up, went to the academy with other screaming nuisances, learned weak techniques, practiced those weak techniques until the girl shooed them home, ate, and went to bed. Nothing too exciting, particularly for Kurama. Honestly, the most exciting part of Naruto’s day seemed to be when he annoyed his Uchiha classmate. It amused Kurama to see the kid try and ignore the brat, with little success. Besides, after everything that clan had done to Kurama, it felt good to watch one of them suffer, even if it was only because of a small annoyance. 

Kurama was dozing when he felt a jolt of strong emotion pulse through him. He had never felt something of that intensity from the brat before and so he quickly looked out to see what could have caused it. He came face-to-face with three humans, who based on their forehead protectors were from a different village. He laughed at the brat’s pathetic attempts to fight them off. Really, where did he learn this stuff? He abruptly became less amused when they spoke of taking him with them. Kurama had seen enough of humans to know that would not end well for the brat. Kurama didn’t care where they took him since all humans were pretty much the same to him and it’s not like they could hurt him more than humans already had. His prison, however, was a completely different story. And it’s not like he particularly cared what happened to him. He wasn’t Gyuki who had apparently befriended his current container. But being stored in the brat suited him well enough for now. When he broke out, he would be able to instantly take revenge on both his previous prison and the man who imprisoned him again by hurting their son. Plus he eventually wanted the other half of his chakra back and if he wasn’t in the brat, he probably would never be able to find where the brat’s father had hidden it. So it would be in his best interests for the kid to survive this encounter.

But there wasn’t much he could actually do. That seal was ridiculously strong and the brat didn’t even know he was in here. He had some influence. He had prodded the kid into doing the right form a few times. It was worth it to see the look of surprise on the Uchiha’s face when his prison knocked him over. But those were all techniques the brat had at least learned and Kurama had just provided suggestions, without him realizing where they came from. Kurama doubted the kid knew anything that would allow him to defeat three adults in straight combat. So Kurama’s tips would probably just confuse him at this point. Kurama decided it wouldn’t hurt to try and attempt to send through an image of one of the more destructive fire jutsus he had observed. Of course, that didn’t help at all and the brat was soundly defeated and tied up. Ungrateful human. Since there was nothing more he could do at the moment, Kurama considered withdrawing to his sanctuary but decided he wanted to see how this played out. Not like he had many other sources of entertainment.

The brat got picked up and Kurama wondered where they were going to take him. He never had the chance to find out. Just as they were about to head out, the brat’s little friends came bursting into the clearing. It was rather amusing to see a bunch of children take out adult shinobi. Kurama didn’t get to see much of the fight, since the girl with the pale eyes quickly subdued the one holding his prison, cut the ropes, and dragged him away. The brat was so shocked that he didn’t even think to protest until they were a little ways away.

“Wait, Hinata, we have to go back,” he insisted, trying to tug his hand away. “They could be in trouble.” Kurama was sure she would give in. From what he had observed, this girl wasn’t very sure of herself.

“No, I am getting you back to the village safely,” she insisted. Humans were always rather surprising.

“But-”

“No. Do you have any idea how worried we all were? We didn’t know where you were and would never have found you if not for Shino. Him, Kiba, and Shikamaru are risking their lives to help you.”

“All the more reason we should go back,” the brat argued. “You guys would never be in this situation if not for me and I want to make sure they don’t get hurt.”

“You don’t get it,” she sounded so frustrated. “You’re our friend, Naruto. We care about you. Do you have any idea how it would feel for Kiba, Shikamaru, and Shino to fight for you and then to find out you weren’t even safe? You matter to us. They decided you are worth risking their lives for. They knew what they were getting themselves into. To go back now would be an insult to their resolve. They have a plan and you going back will just complicate things. I promised them that I would get you back to the village safety, no matter what. And I intend to keep that promise.” By the end of her speech, the girl was breathing heavily and glaring at his prison, who looked very taken aback. Kurama guessed that was the most she had ever said at one time. 

They stayed frozen in that position until they heard a yell from behind them. The girl grabbed the brat’s hand again. “You can resent me if you want, but we are leaving now.” She took off towards the village and the brat just followed her in somewhat of a daze. As they approached the gates, a shinobi Kurama recognized from the amount of time he had spent with the brat’s parents met them. The girl hurriedly relayed their friends’ location to him and he nodded before taking off. The girl’s sudden burst of bravery seemed to leave her and she dropped the brat’s hand and looked down at her feet.

“You were wrong back there,” the brat said, causing the girl to flinch. Kurama rolled his eyes at the unnecessary human drama that was about to unfold. Honestly, she was definitely in the right here. The brat was just an idiot. But both he and the girl were shocked by what the brat said next, “It wasn’t just Kiba, Shikamaru, and Shino risking their lives for me, it was you too. Thank you and I’m sorry. I didn’t think that you would put yourselves in danger for me. You’re a good friend, Hinata.” At this point, the girl started crying and launched herself at them for a hug. Kurama’s thoughts went to his siblings and how they might fight a lot but had tried to help each other when the humans started sealing them. It was a useless struggle and had resulted in some of them getting sealed way earlier than if they had tried to hide or fight when they had better odds. But in the connection they felt with one another, he never remembered feeling any resentment from Matatabi, who had been captured trying to save Saiken or Chomei who had been sealed while protecting Kokuo. He couldn’t help himself from reaching for their connection, just to reassure himself they were all alright. Or as alright as they could be.

“Come on, let’s get you home,” Hinata told him. “I’m sure your older friends are worried about you.”

“Oh no, Tenten’s going to kill me!” Naruto exclaimed. Kurama was pretty sure he was right, considering how protective Tenten was. That reunion was as entertaining as Kurama had hoped, with Tenten screaming about the brat being an idiot and fussing over him with Lee picking Naruto up and whirling him around in a hug as soon as he saw him. Kurama hung around long enough to see that all of Naruto’s friends made it back safely. After all, if one of them got hurt protecting the brat, he would probably get all sad and it would annoy Kurama. Once he saw that they were all relatively unharmed, he retreated to his sanctuary to rest. He had never tried to see through Naruto's eyes for that long before and so spent the next week or so recovering his energy before peeking out again. 

The first thing he saw when he glanced at the outside world again was a shruinken heading straight at them and Naruto wasn’t moving. Without even thinking about it, he pushed Naruto to move with all of his might. He might have overdone it a little he realized when they fell headfirst into a tree.

“What are you doing, you idiot?” He recognized that voice. He was proven correct when Tenten poked her head around the trunk to glare at them. “You were supposed to stay still so I could get a good idea of how someone standing in front of the target would impact my aim. I wasn’t going to hit you.” She looked rather insulted by their apparent lack of belief in her skill.

“I didn’t move,” Naruto protested. “My body just moved on its own. I knew you wouldn’t hit me. And even if you did, I heal quickly.”

“So your body just moved on its own, huh? What, you got a demon inside you controlling your actions?” Tenten asked, raising an eyebrow. “And quit being so unconcerned about your own safety. I swear you and Lee are going to be the death of me.” Naruto, and so Kurama, instinctively glanced over where Lee was practicing. Kurama was surprised to find that he was working with the Uchiha. He hadn't seen him at their training sessions before.

“No fair, I want to fight Sasuke,” Naruto yelled, starting to go running towards them. Tenten grabbed him before he could get too far. 

“No, I need to check and make sure you don’t have a concussion. And anyway, let them practice together, they look like they are enjoying it.” Kurama wasn’t too sure about the accuracy of that statement since the Uchiha’s facial expression hadn’t changed at all, but Lee at least seemed to be having a good time.

“But, Tenten,” Naruto whined.

“You went headfirst into a tree when you didn’t even mean to move, Naruto. I’m checking you over before you can do any more training,” her tone brooked no argument. Naruto sighed but allowed her to drag him along until they were under a tree near the edge of the clearing. Kurama knew Naruto was fine. It would take more than that to damage the brat when he was sealed in him, but Tenten was very thorough and even after giving Naruto a clean bill of health, she insisted he sit with her for a little bit before going back to practice. Naruto complained of course but gave in. “I was perfectly content to work on seals while you practiced with your friends. You’re the one who insisted I show you the new throwing technique I was working on,” Tenten reminded him. “And then you threw yourself face-first into a tree. So you have no one to blame but yourself.” Kurama refused to acknowledge that he felt a little bad about getting the brat in trouble. Maybe he should try working with him more often, that way he would better be able to control what happened to Naruto, even if he didn’t know Kurama was there. Given the amount of trouble this group got into, Naruto would definitely need some help staying alive. And he was a rather amusing prison. Not that he was getting attached or anything, no matter what the voice in the back of his head that sounded an awful lot like Gyuki said. Humans on the whole were still awful and Kurama hated them for everything they had done to him and his siblings. But these kids were interesting and truly seemed to care for each other, not just about what they could get from each other like most humans did. They were worth watching. It’s not like Kurama had anything better to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I have said before, I have no clear how the seals on the jinchuriki are supposed to work, so just pretend this is how they are supposed to function.
> 
> If you hadn't noticed, I decided to make a pretty abrupt shift in what names Kurama called Naruto & co. right after Kurama thought of his siblings. Sorry if the use of brat and prison got repetitive in the first part, I just though Kurama would not have bothered using any of their names until he got attached to them. Not that he is admitting to that at this point in time.
> 
> I've always headcannoned that all of the bijuu had some connection that allowed them to at least sense each other so I threw that in here.


	14. Shikamaru II

A couple of weeks after the start of their second year at the academy, Shikamaru decided it was time to put the next part of the plan into action. Although the plan had a lot of steps and alternate routes (all of which were 100% necessary regardless of what Ino and Kiba thought) those steps could be separated into three basic phases. The goal of the first phase was to change how their classmates viewed Naruto. These were the people he spent the most time with and if they did not convince them before moving forward, it would undermine them later. Shikamaru was pleased to note that this phase went rather well. Ino was scarily efficient when it came to taking care of one of her friends and the whole class listened to her. Once she had made her good opinion of Naruto clear, the rest of the class slowly followed. While there were still a few who didn’t seem to like Naruto, overall the class was much kinder to him than before. And it wasn’t just for show either. While he was sure it had started out that way for most of them, over the course of last school year, their classmates honestly warmed up to Naruto. Shikamaru had seen Tamiko give Naruto cookies from her family’s bakeshop once over the summer and observed him playing tag with some of their classmates multiple times. Ino and Kiba had come with him a couple of times to spy on Naruto, and Ino said she didn’t think anyone was faking their emotions, and Kiba didn’t smell anything fishy. It seemed that they had progressed as far as they could with Naruto's school life and all that was left was to make sure their classmates didn’t revert to prior bad behavior. Shikamaru decided not to fight the battle of changing Mizuki’s opinion. While having the teacher on his side would make Naruto’s life much better, Shikamaru knew that was not a fight they were going to win. When he thought no one was looking Mizuki looked at Naruto with disgust. Plus Shikamaru had heard their teacher trying to subtly question their classmates and figure out why they were acting decently towards Naruto now and if they could be persuaded to change their minds. For whatever reason, their teacher had it out for Naruto and Shikamaru couldn’t do much about that. He would probably be able to get Mizuki fired if he tried hard enough, but their new teacher might hate Naruto just as much as Mizuki did. Better to stick with Mizuki, whose tells and habits Shikamaru knew than bring in an unknown variable at this stage of the plan. So they had done as much for Naruto as they could within the school, which convinced Shikamaru that they were ready to move on to the next phase.

The goal of this phase was to change the adult civilian’s opinions of Naruto. These were the people Naruto interacted with in the village and the ones who seemed to have the most resentment towards him. Shikamaru had had all of their friends bring up Naruto at some clan meetings, and besides the Hyuuga clan, overall most clan members didn’t seem to have much of an issue with Naruto. A few said he was dangerous and they should be careful around him. One of Choji’s uncles had started to say something about Naruto’s parents but a glare from Choza had shut him up. While Shikamaru was rather curious about that, he figured it must somehow relate to the root reason that people hated Naruto and so could not be investigated without someone figuring out what they were up to. And they had come so far and Naruto was doing so much better that Shikamaru didn’t want to risk doing anything that would derail their progress. So he would leave it alone for now. Phase two was complicated enough as it was.

Shikamaru knew phase two would not be nearly as easy as phase one. Their classmates didn’t really have a reason to hate Naruto, besides their parents telling them to stay away from him and how loud he was during class. From what Shikamaru had observed, it seemed like many villagers really did hate and fear Naruto and they felt like they had a legitimate reason for doing so. Personally, Shikamaru felt their reasoning must be faulty considering this was Naruto they were talking about, but since he couldn’t investigate their reasoning, he was trying to change their minds without addressing their underlying motivations. Which would be extremely troublesome. 

But they had come so far already and Ino would kill him if he started complaining about how troublesome this all was, so he would see it through. Besides, they may have made Naruto’s life at school a little easier, but his treatment in the village itself was the real problem. What was frustrating about this part of the plan was how hard it was for Shikamaru to predict how everything would play out. Predicting how their classmates would behave was relatively easy. He knew their habits, motivations, and whose opinion they would respect and follow (Ino’s). But he couldn’t make as accurate predictions in regards to the population of the rest of the village because he didn’t have enough information. Plus, their treatment of Naruto was obviously due more to their emotions than any rational logic and emotions were hard to plan for. So Shikamaru decided the best method would be to start small with trying to change the opinions of a few people and see how they reacted before moving to a larger scale. He knew this meant Naruto would be mistreated by most of the village for a longer period of time, but pushing too hard too quickly might lead to a backlash that would hurt him even more. 

He decided, after talking to Ino, to start with Kaede. Shikamaru knew her from going to her stand many times over the years and Ino said she had lied to Naruto about having fish a few months ago, so she obviously felt strongly towards him. While Shikamaru knew Tenten and Lee did most of the shopping now, Naruto still had to go into the marketplace occasionally, and making the people involved in that process friendly or at least less obviously hostile would hopefully make Naruto’s life a little better.

That week after their Saturday practice, Shikamaru had pulled Lee and Tenten aside while Kiba distracted Naruto by wrestling him. He explained the plan to them and asked if it was alright if he and Ino took Naruto into the marketplace tomorrow. He knew that Tenten and Lee would be the ones Naruto turned to if things went horribly wrong and he wanted to make sure they knew what was happening and were alright with it.

“You really think it will help?” Tenten asked, looking him dead in the eye. For once, Lee was quiet, watching Shikamaru carefully.

“I can’t promise anything,” Shikamaru admitted. “But things need to change and this is the best plan I can come up with. Ino and I will be with him the entire time. We’ll go in the late afternoon so there shouldn’t be as many people and if things aren’t going well, we can leave and try again another day.”

“Alright, I’ll trust you on this.” Shikamaru knew just how much that meant coming from Tenten. “Just be careful,” she cautioned. “He’s far more fragile than he likes to let on.” Shikamaru agreed without hesitation. Tenten nodded and left to go talk to Ino who was hovering a little ways away. 

Lee clasped Shikamaru on the shoulder and wished him luck, “I am glad Naruto has you as a friend,” he told Shikamaru sincerely before heading towards Sasuke, who was standing a short distance from the wrestling match and looking at it in confusion. 

Sunday afternoon, he and Ino met up to head over to Naruto’s apartment. On Friday, Choji had invited the whole group of them over for dinner and Ino had immediately offered to pick up any last-minute items they might need before she came over. She had to pester Choji’s parents for quite a bit before they agreed to let her do it, but Choza had finally given in, saying he recognized the looks on her face and didn’t want to get in the way of whatever scheme she was plotting now. They figured this was a good time to put their plan into action, since if things went poorly, Naruto would immediately be able to hang out with his friends to cheer him up. They had asked Naruto after their training session yesterday if he minded going to the marketplace with them beforehand to help them carry some things. Shikamaru had played with the idea of just asking him when they picked him up so he didn’t worry about it beforehand, but felt that Naruto had the right to know so he could back out if he didn’t feel up to it. Not that he would, since he seemed deeply committed to pretending everything was fine all the time, but he still wanted to give the other boy the opportunity. Trying to keep track of Naruto’s mental state when he wouldn’t tell Shikamaru or anyone when anything was wrong was very troublesome, Shikamaru decided. But he doubted they would convince Naruto to stop that habit anytime soon.

“Hey, Naruto,” Ino greeted, breaking Shikamaru out of his thoughts. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Naruto cheered. He was concernedly good at putting on a front, Shikamaru noted. If he hadn’t observed Naruto until he knew all his tells, he wouldn’t have noticed how his grin was slightly shaky and that he didn’t yell near as loud as usual. “Lee and Tenten will meet us over there. They said they had to meet up with one of their classmates for a project beforehand." Shikamaru really hoped that was just what Tenten told Naruto so he didn’t wonder why they weren’t all going together. He knew neither Tenten or Lee got along well with their classmates. Lee was always slightly quieter right after school let out and Tenten had several days where she obliterated a training post, which no more explanation than “idiot classmates.” While Shikamaru was curious about what was going on there, they had told him not to worry about it and to focus on Naruto. After observing that the two of them didn't seem to encounter any problems with the rest of the village, just their classmates, Shikamaru decided to leave it be. 

“We need to pick up some fish and a few vegetables,” Ino reported. “It shouldn’t take long.” She confidently led Naruto and Shikamaru through the marketplace. The further they walked, the tenser Naruto got. Shikamaru didn’t blame him. He could feel all the eyes following them. And it wasn’t like how people would sometimes watch Shikamaru because his dad was the jonin commander and so pretty much everyone knew him. Those felt friendly, interested. These gazes felt cruel and suspicious.

They stopped to grab the vegetables first. The shopkeeper kept a very close eye on them, particularly on Naruto, and asked who was paying before telling them the total. By the end of that interaction, Ino was wearing her very scary smile that promised swift retribution on those who messed with her friends. Shikamaru would have felt bad for the shopkeeper since you really didn't want to get on Ino’s bad side, but Naruto had just sort of curled in on himself the longer they stayed at the stand, and that shopkeeper deserved whatever Ino decided to do to him. Ino’s scary smile did not fall as they walked through the marketplace towards Kaede’s stall, with whispers following them.

“Hey, Kaede, how are you doing?” Ino greeted her.

“Oh, Ino, dear, it’s good to see you again,” Kaede called out, her back to them as she sorted through some boxes. “I’ll be with you in just a minute. What are you looking for?”

“Do you have any salmon? We’re going over to Choji’s for dinner with some of our friends from the academy and more people could make it than initially expected, so we offered to pick up some more supplies on our way over,” Ino told her.

“Well isn’t that sweet of you? Yes, I’ve got some lovely fresh salmon that should do you very nicely,” Kaede replied, finally turning towards them. “Who all is going to be-” She broke off as she saw Naruto.

“Oh, well Choji, Naruto, and Shikamaru, of course. Kiba, Shino, Sakura, Lee, Tenten are all coming, and Hinata was going to ask her father if she could come. Sasuke still refuses to hang out with us outside school and practice sessions, but we’ll wear him down eventually.” Ino chatted on, pretending not to notice Kaede glaring at Naruto and him looking uncomfortable. 

Kaede wrapped the fish for them and handed it over, murmuring, “That sounds nice,” to Ino. Shikamaru could tell by the way she reached out her hand towards Ino like she wanted to physically pull her away from Naruto before pulling it back and the glare she sent Naruto's way that she did not want them anywhere near Naruto. But she wouldn’t say anything with all of them right there. They waved good-bye and headed towards Choji’s house. Once they left the marketplace, Shikamaru could see the tension drain out of Naruto and he went back to excitedly talking about the moves they were working on at the academy.

When they neared Choji’s house, Ino gave him a significant look, and Shikamaru had to hold back a groan. He knew what she wanted him to do and knew he needed to do it, but it was rather annoying that Naruto was going to make him outright say it. 

Ino entered the house and Shikamaru drew Naruto to the side. Since this was Naruto, he figured the direct approach would work best, plus he wanted to eat sooner rather than later. “You’re our friend, Naruto,” he outright told him. “We aren’t going to be embarrassed to be seen with you or stop hanging out with you because some of the villagers have a problem with you for some weird reason. So stop worrying about that.” He didn’t mention the plan to help Naruto. He didn’t want him to feel like a burden or that he owed them anything. Naruto for once seemed to not know how to respond. “Now, come on, let’s go eat. You’ll need your strength if you’re going to meet Sasuke on Monday.” Just like he had figured, that got a response from Naruto, who immediately started yelling about being the best and grabbed Shikamaru’s hand to drag him towards their friends. 

When they got inside, everyone else had already gathered around the table, which was piled so high with dishes that Shikamaru was honestly impressed it hadn’t collapsed. “Finally, did you get lost on your way here?,” Kiba gripped good-naturedly at them. Naruto made a face at him but quickly settled down in the face of all the food. 

“Are we eating yet?” Naruto asked.

“Nah, Mom’s still finishing up a few more dishes,” Choji reported. “Hey, Naruto, Shikamaru.”

Shikamaru nodded at his friend and took a seat beside him. Naruto was still marveling at the sheer amount of food before them but drew his attention away from that long enough to say hi to everyone. Most of the people Ino had listed to Kaede were there, including Hinata who had Akamaru sprawled down next to and was petting him gently. Sakura was next to her, talking to Shino. Shikamaru guessed Ino had made her way to the kitchen to hand over their purchases, but he didn’t see Lee or Tenten anywhere.

“Hey, Choji, have Lee and Tenten arrived?” He asked.

Choji laughed, “Yeah, they’re in the kitchen with Mom. The second they were introduced, Lee mentioned that Naruto highly praised her cooking and Tenten asked if it was possible for her to share some of her recipes because Naruto would not shut up about them. She was so thrilled that she dragged them both into the kitchen right then and there and has been giving them tips and recipes for the last half hour. And then Tenten made the mistake of mentioning that their food budget is pretty limited and now they have a standing invite to come over for dinner anytime they want, despite their protests of not wanting to intrude, and I’m pretty sure Mom is going to send them home with as many leftovers as she can.” Shikamaru chuckled along with him. He knew how important food was to the Akimichi clan and Chihiro in particular was very dedicated to making sure everyone she knew was sufficiently fed. 

Soon enough, Ino, Lee, and Tenten filed out of the kitchen, carrying even more platters of food. They had to get creative in order to make everything fit. Chihiro bustled out of the kitchen soon after them and finally, they could begin eating. Shikamaru ended up sitting between Choji and Lee, picking his way through his food at a much slower pace than most of the other people at the table. There wasn’t much talking at first, with everyone digging in, but eventually, some easy conservations started up about what they were learning and old mission stories from Choza. Shikamaru had heard most of those before, and so glanced around to see how everyone was doing. He noticed Lee was glancing at Chihiro pretty frequently and seemed to be almost vibrating in his seat.

“Are you alright, Lee? Do you need something?” he asked, wondering what could cause his behavior.

“I’m fine. Thank you, Shikamaru,” he answered. “But I do have a question if it would not be a bother.”

“Sure, go for it,” Shikamaru responded.

“Do you think Chihiro would help us train?”

That really threw Shikamaru for a loop. He knew Chihiro was very strong and brave, but she hadn't been on missions for a while, preferring to help manage the clan. “May I ask what brought this on?”

Lee leaned closer like he was sharing a secret. He even managed to lower his voice to something close to a whisper, “She was able to out stubborn Tenten. Anyone who can do that must be very formidable indeed. And she is very strong.” 

Shikamaru couldn’t help but let out a laugh, although knowing Tenten, he understood Lee's amazement. Tenten was very stubborn. “Well, she does resolve most of the conflicts that occur within the clan. That takes a lot of patience and a willingness to stand her ground. Maybe you should take her up on her offer to come over for dinner a few times and get to know her before you ask her for help with training.”

Lee seemed satisfied with that answer and eventually leaned over to talk to Shino about the academy when Shikamaru did not make an effort to continue the conversation. 

Shikamaru glanced around the table again. Everyone but Naruto, Choji, Kiba, and Choza was done eating. Naruto and Kiba seemed to be having some sort of eating contest, shoving each other and laughing, with Akamaru barking in the background. Sakura had joined Shino and Lee’s conversation while Hinata was talking with Chihiro with Ino joining in. Ino caught Shikamaru’s gaze as he looked over and smiled. They had certainly come a long way from when Shikamaru had first told her about his plan, over a year ago now. They weren’t done by any means, but looking around, Shikamaru allowed himself a moment to appreciate how far they had come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I could not find a canon name for Choji's mom, so I just chose Chihiro, but if anyone knows her actual name, please let me know.
> 
> From this point on, a lot more time will pass within and between chapters. Most of the friendship building has been accomplished and so we can move a little faster. 
> 
> I found myself mentioning several times in this chapter methods/ideas Shikamaru thought about but decided not to go through with. Part of that was to show his plotting tendencies, but also I've endlessly fascinated by how a small change can affect so much. I mean I've written almost 100,000 words about the effect of changing what village one person was in had. So I find myself thinking about how things would differ if Shikamaru decided to get rid of Mizuki or investigate the source of the village's issues with Naruto. Nothing I'll probably ever write, but it's fun to think about.


	15. Ino II

“Naruto, it’s just my dad and me usually, there is no way we need that much rice,” Ino lectured, pushing him to put back three of the four one-pound bags of rice he had grabbed. In the month that had passed since she and Shikamaru first brought Naruto to the marketplace with them, they had tried to repeat the experience once a week, at times when there weren’t that many people around. On top of glaring at anyone who dared to stare at them or even worse say something bad about Naruto as they walked by, Ino found herself trying to teach him the necessary skills of picking out what produce was good and how to plan meals. She knew Tenten and Lee did most of the shopping, for obvious reasons, but hadn’t realized just how bad Naruto was at guessing how much food was necessary. “How much food do Tenten and Lee usually keep on hand at their place?” She asked, trying to figure out how Naruto drastically overestimated the amount of supplies needed when Tenten and Lee only had the bare minimum from what she had seen when she went through the cabinets last time she was over.

“I’m not allowed in the kitchen,” Naruto cheerfully reported. “Last time I was in there, they left the room for a minute, and while they were gone, one of our pots caught on fire. We’re still not sure how. I didn’t even touch it and it had never happened before. So Tenten banished me from the kitchen. She said she would be willing to rescind her decree and start teaching me to cook once we had enough money to spare on buying whatever kitchenware was destroyed in the process.” Naruto went back to evaluating a melon while Ino just stared at him in shock. How does that even happen? She had her own share of kitchen disasters, but she never managed to destroy a pot in less than a minute without even going near it. 

“Well then, I’ll keep that in mind if I ever invite you over to cook, but you should at least know how to calculate how much food you will need over a week.” Naruto pulled a face at that, so Ino pulled out the try-and-true strategy. “It’s a very necessary skill for shinobi to have. On longer missions, you’ll need to accurately estimate what supplies you’ll need.” Once Naruto was onboard with learning, Ino walked him through a couple of simple recipes and how much of each ingredient they would need depending on how many people they were buying for. Disregarding the stares they drew throughout the entire process was becoming second-nature to Ino at this point. Not that she completely ignored them. She took note of who was staring, particularly if it was a shopkeeper. Then, she’d send some of the others in their group to that stand later in the week and have them talk about Naruto and their friendship with him. When they did get told by the shopkeeper or other people around to stay away from Naruto, they’d ask why. It worked well because the adults couldn’t really say anything without giving away whatever big secret every adult in the village was trying to keep. So whoever from their group was there would just say Naruto was their friend and they saw no reason why they shouldn’t hang out with him. It played out a little differently with each person: Kiba loudly proclaimed how much he liked Naruto while Shino’s would just comment that Naruto was a good person while staring whoever challenged him straight in the eye. Hinata and Sakura were both a little shy and hesitant at first, but they too would defend Naruto when the need arose. She had even seen Sasuke do it once, although he wasn’t actually in on the plan. She had just happened to be walking by a food stool when she heard Sasuke loudly say that Naruto was a good training partner and worth spending time with. Coming from him that was pretty much a declaration of everlasting friendship. Her and Shikamaru had made their alliances pretty clear, and most people assumed correctly that Choji agreed with them. That wasn’t to say people didn’t try to talk to them about it, but they were slightly more hesitant. Ino was glad since those conversations always made her very angry.

She remembered the exchange she had with Kaede a few days after she had brought Naruto with her for the first time. She had gone to get some food at the marketplace and had stopped by Kaede’s stand on her way out. She had instantly noticed how Kaede was more wary than usual and kept glancing around like she expected Naruto to just pop up out of the ground. Ino made small talk for a little while, giving Kaede time to sort through her thoughts, because she knew this was a conversation they needed to have before Ino next brought Naruto into the marketplace with her.

Finally Kaede squared her shoulders and addressed the source of tension, “Ino, I noticed last time you were here you brought that boy with you. Are you friends?”

“Shikamaru?” Ino asked innocently, “We’ve been friends practically since we were born. I would have thought you would have seen us together before.” Just because it was a necessary conversation did not mean she was going to allow Kaede to get away with talking about Naruto like that. Her face when she said that boy was truly concerning.

“No, the other one,” Kaede answered.

“Oh, Naruto. Yeah, he’s in my class at the academy and recently we’ve grown closer. He’s quite sweet.” Ino could see Kaede mouthing the word sweet in disbelief.

“You should be careful,” Kaede warned her. “He’s dangerous.”

Ino desperately wanted to press her on that but refrained. “He’s harmless. A good practice partner and definitely improving, but he would never hurt his friends or anyone else outside of practice matches.” What they really needed to get across, Shikamaru had stressed, is that Naruto didn’t want to hurt anyone, except maybe enemy shinobi. It wasn’t a question of ability. Naruto had been treated like this since he was very young. So the fact that he literally couldn’t hurt them wasn’t convincing enough for the villagers. They needed to see Naruto as his friends did- a little goofy maybe, but kind and caring.

“You don’t understand,” Kaede pleaded. “He’s not normal and I don’t want to see you or your friends get hurt.”

“Naruto is my friend,” Ino informed her. “And I know he’s not a threat. Despite what everyone seems to think, Naruto truly cares about this village and the people in it. I’m not going to change my mind. Have a nice day.” And with that, she walked away. She had said her piece and nothing would come of her continuing to argue with Kaede when it was clear she wasn’t ready to accept the truth yet. But Ino was persistent, and she’d keep at it until everyone was forced to see Naruto for the person he truly was.

Of course, for all his good qualities, he did still have those traits that got on her nerves, such as the fact that he had the attention span of a squirrel. Ino had turned around for a minute to pay for their food, and when she turned back, Naruto was nowhere in sight. She sighed, picked up their purchases, and went to look for him. Although she knew most villagers would not outright attack Naruto physically, she did not like leaving him alone in the marketplace. Luckily, she did not have to look far. Naruto was just outside excitedly talking to someone Ino recognized as Kiba’s sister. Her three dogs were twisting around Naruto for pets as they chatted. As Ino approached, Kiba’s sister waved good-bye to Naruto and set off towards the east gate, nodding at Ino as she walked by her.

Before Ino could launch into a lecture about not running off, Naruto spoke up, “Sorry for leaving, Ino. I just saw Hana and Kiba had mentioned she was heading out for a long-term mission today so I wanted to get the chance to say good-bye to her and the Haimaru Brothers.”

Ino waved him off, “It’s fine. I’m glad you got a chance to see her before she left.” Every child of a shinobi knew how important pre-mission good-byes were since no one ever knew when their last mission would be. She made a mental note to check in with Kiba to make sure he was alright. If she remembered correctly, Hana had just made chunin recently so this was probably her first long-term mission. Ino could remember waiting for her father to come back from missions and how scared she always felt. Various clan members would check in with her or provide a distraction, which she always greatly appreciated. So she would do the same for Kiba.

Naruto offered to take a couple of the bags, which Ino gratefully handed over before they proceeded to Kaede’s stand. This was always their last stop when Ino took Naruto to the market with her. So far, Kaede hadn’t seemed to change her stance on Naruto, but she had at least stopped trying to talk Ino out of spending time with him. So they were making progress, no matter how slow it was. As they were approaching the stand, Ino asked Naruto a question about the new puppies Kiba had introduced him to last week. She had a point to encourage Naruto to talk about things he felt passionate about and were things most people could relate to when they were near Kaede, in the hopes that would help Kaede to see Naruto as just a regular kid instead of whatever horror she currently viewed him as. 

The first time she had tried this had not gone so well. She had asked Naruto about some techniques they were working on in the academy, hoping that if Kaede heard how passionate Naruto was at learning to protect the village, she would think better of him. Of course, talking about the academy had led to Naruto talking about how much he wanted to beat Sasuke and hearing Naruto say, “Just you wait. I’m going to destroy him,” had not made Kaede less apprehensive about him. Ino had ushered Naruto away rather quickly that day and resolved to never bring up something that could eventually lead to talking about Sasuke during these outings. Naruto tended to have a one-track mind when it came to the other boy, and his enthusiastic threats were not conducive to their overall goal of convincing the villagers that Naruto was not a threat to them.

“And then the smallest one crawled right into my lap,” Naruto cheerfully reported as they reached Kaede’s stand. “Usually it takes them a little while to warm up to me. But she just curled up and let me pet her for a really long time. Kiba says I can come back next week to see how she and the rest of them are doing. They’re still a bit too young for us to run around and play with them, but they’re really sweet and maybe one of them will fall asleep in my lap next time. I’ve seen them do that with Kiba and it looks really comfortable.” Ino wondered if Naruto realized how much trust Kiba and the rest of the Inuzuka clan was placing in him by allowing him to be around their nin dogs when they were still completely defenseless. Usually, non-Inuzukas wouldn’t see the dogs until they were assigned a partner, which didn’t happen until they were capable of fighting. To allow Naruto to spend time with puppies that weren’t even a week old said a lot about the Inuzuka’s evaluation of Naruto’s character. Then again, maybe Naruto had some idea. He never asked if other people were coming over to see the puppies and hadn’t talked about them with others until Kiba had brought the topic up. She knew from Kiba that Naruto was always very careful with them.

“That’s great, Naruto,” Ino told him. “I’m glad they are starting to feel more comfortable around you.” Naruto grinned broadly. “Hey, Kaede,” Ino greeted the woman who was watching them closely. “How’s your week been?”

“It’s been fine, dear,” Kaede replied, “What are you looking for today?”

“Could I have a couple of tuna?” Ino asked. “Naruto, do you need anything?”

Naruto thought it over, “I don’t think so. Lee and Tenten decide what to cook and I don’t know if they have already gone shopping for the week.”

“Alright, just the tuna then,” Ino turned towards Kaede. She still wasn’t as friendly as she had been when Ino would come alone, but at least she no longer flinched back from Naruto when he reached to grab the fish from her. “Thanks, Kaede.” She waved good-bye and the two of them set off towards Ino’s house since they were done with their shopping for the day.

“Maybe I can show you some simple recipes and you could try planning your meals for next week,” Ino suggested to him. “I know Tenten is still wary of letting you back in the kitchen,” she said before Naruto could protest. “But I think both of them would be willing to make whatever you asked for and it would be good practice for you to have to figure out what quantity you needed of each ingredient.” Ino always enjoyed watching Lee and Tenten cook. They had completely different styles but still managed to work together well. Tenten strictly followed the recipe, only making slight adjustments if she really needed to. Lee, on the other hand, would start out with the ingredients he needed and just throw some of everything in and adjust along the way. When they cooked together, Lee would let Tenten choose the starting amounts of everything and she would let him add more as he saw fit along the way. They effortlessly adjusted to one other, whether in the kitchen or fighting rings, and Ino loved to watch it.

“That sounds good,” Naruto replied. So after they put away the groceries, Ino spent the next hour describing some of her favorite simpler recipes, what was necessary for each one, and some adjustments she liked to make. Naruto ended up picking three recipes that he said he would bring back to Lee and Tenten to get their final opinion on.

“Thanks, Ino,” Naruto said. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow? Bye, Inochi,” he waved to her dad, who had been watching them in amusement for quite some time.

“Bye, Naruto. It was a pleasure to see you,” her dad told him as Naruto left. Naruto grinned at him before running off towards his apartment. Ino had initially been worried that Naruto might feel uncomfortable around her dad. She had made sure to casually bring up Naruto at dinner a couple of times before he came over, so she could make sure her dad did not have a problem with him, although she knew he wouldn’t. He responded like he always did when she brought up a new friend, nothing more. So that was one non-issue. But she was not sure how Naruto would react to her dad. She needn’t have worried since she had gone to fetch one of her textbooks the first time Naruto was over and came back to the two of them chatting away at the kitchen table. She was pleased until she realized her dad was telling embarrassing stories about her so she put a stop to that real fast, but was glad they were getting along. 

Although she never outright asked her dad why no adults ever stepped in to stop the way most of the villagers treated Naruto, she had gotten her ability at reading people from somewhere and her dad eventually addressed the issue. “There’s more going on than you could ever imagine,” he told Ino one night. “That doesn’t excuse our inaction, but it’s all I can tell you right now. I’m glad you are there for him. I know you and your friends will give him the support he needs.” Ino let the matter rest, knowing it must somehow relate to the village’s issues with Naruto. If even her dad, who she couldn’t help but think of as the bravest and strongest person ever, would not do anything about Naruto's situation, then she guessed it really was all up to them. Not that she was too worried. All of their friends had stepped up in ways she would not have thought possible even months ago. They would do whatever necessary to make sure Naruto was safe and happy- whether that was waging psychological warfare on shopkeepers, making sure he was getting enough to eat, or practicing with him whenever he asked. She trusted in her friends and in Naruto’s resilience. They would make it through. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't intend to repeat all the povs in the same order as the first go around, but Shikamaru and Ino are just the best for setting the scene of whatever is going on in the plan right now, so I decided to go back to them for the start. 
> 
> I firmly believe Naruto would be a disaster in the kitchen. Not because of Kurama or anything, just because he would get distracted quite easily, probably get bored with the recipe half-way through and just add whatever he wants, and then just give up and go out for ramen.


	16. Interlude 4: Kaede

Kaede watched Ino leave with that boy, the two of them happily chatting about recipes. Her hand itched, wanting so badly to separate them. To protect Ino-kind, innocent Ino- from the monster the boy housed and was. But she knew Ino, had watched her grow up from the first time her father brought her into the marketplace with him when she was only a few months old. She was as stubborn as they come when she thought she was in the right, which she definitely did. Trying to further convince her to run far away from that boy would accomplish nothing. 

For the first time, Kaede resented the Lord Third’s order that everything surrounding that night was to be kept a secret. In the aftermath, it had been a blessing. She didn’t want to be reminded over and over again of Yaeko’s death. Her beautiful girl. She had only been nineteen. Kaede remembered how she had been when she had graduated from the academy and got her own genin team. She would often come home complaining about weeds or cats those first couple years but had been able to make chunin three years after she graduated. Although Kaede missed her when she went on longer missions and constantly worried about her, she knew Yaeko loved protecting the village. She had just gotten back from a long-term mission that night. It was the first time Kaede had seen her in three months. She had stopped by the stall after turning in her mission report and promised to come over for dinner that night after she took a long, long shower to clear off all the muck. Kaede had laughed at her and promised to make her favorites before teasing her that she should leave before she scared off the customers with her stench. Yaeko had laughed and waved good-bye, hurrying off. And that was the last time she had ever seen her.

Kaede had just returned home from her stall when the attack occurred. She evacuated with the rest of the civilians in her area. None of them was sure what was going on until they saw the fox. They were far from it, but could still see it as it towered over the village. They couldn’t get a good sense of what exactly was occurring from the shelter, but they watched all the same, desperate to understand what was happening. And when they emerged from their shelter, it was like they had been transported to a village so different from the one they called their home. Rubble was everywhere. Kaede had lived in this village all her life and she had known every inch of it. Now, it was so different, it had taken her forever to find her house. Unlike some of her neighbors, hers was still standing. Parts of the roof were caved in, and there were stains on the outside that she desperately hoped weren’t actually blood, but it was still there. She remembered feeling so relieved. She had spent the next few hours helping her neighbors save what they could from their destroyed homes, helping in any way she could. She had collapsed exhausted in her bed that night, after setting up some blankets for various neighbors who needed a roof over their heads for the night in her living room. She hadn’t even thought to question where Yaeko was. She was so sure her daughter was safe and just helping with clean-up or whatever else the shinobi did after an attack like this.

It was only after a whole day had passed without seeing Yaeko that she began to worry. She knew all the shinobi were probably very busy dealing with the aftermath of the attack, but surely her darling girl would have taken the time to check in with her and make sure she was alright. So when there was a knock at the door and she opened it to reveal Yaeko’s old jonin-sensei, she thought he was here because Yaeko couldn’t getaway. She had some talent at healing and so was probably busy. She honestly didn’t remember most of the conversation that day. Snippets came back to her, echoing around her mind as she tried to sleep. ‘Never checked in after the attack’, ‘no body has been found’, ‘no one knows what happened’. For a few days, Kaede held out hope that she was just injured, buried in the rubble somewhere and they would find her soon. After a week went by, she forced herself to let go of that hope because it had become far too painful. She attended the mass funeral with everyone else in the village. She almost broke down when she saw the picture of Yaeko up there. It had been taken right after she passed the chunin exam. She looked so happy and proud of herself.

Kaede threw herself into rebuilding efforts. She wasn’t much help with manual labor, but she would cook for anyone who needed food and helped with salvaging efforts. A few days later, the Third, who had been reinstated as Hokage, called all the adult villagers together. He explained to them how the Nine-Tails had broken free of the seal on Kushina and ravaged the village. He also told them that it had been resealed with the Fourth and Kushina’s newborn son. He then issued a decree that none of them were to speak of this incident, particularly about the child being the new container for the Nine-Tails and who his parents were. 

And eventually, the village rebuilt itself and they continued on with their lives. Kaede reopened her stall a couple of months after it all happened and tried to continue business as usual. But it would never go back to the way it had been. Pretty much everyone she knew had lost someone. Kaede noticed that Junpei, the kind old man who used to sell vegetables at the stall next to hers never returned. She saw his granddaughter one day, who told her he had been crushed by rubble while trying to make it to the caves. Some of her regular customers never appeared again, and she found their names on the Memorial Stone or list of civilian casualties later. And then there was her Yaeko.

For the first few years after the incident, Kaede didn’t think much of the boy who had the Nine-Tails sealed inside him. She had heard he had been placed in the orphanage and didn’t think about it anymore. She was sure the Hokage had protocols in place to ensure he was not a threat to the village. 

Over five years had passed when she finally caught sight of him. The marks on his cheeks made him stand out as did the way people moved away from him as he walked by. Kaede did her best to ignore him. She certainly didn’t want his attention on her. He didn’t start coming around her stall until a couple of years after that. She didn’t hesitate for a moment to tell him she was fresh out of the fish the first time he came by. And she didn’t regret it either. This monster was responsible for so much death and destruction, and he dared try to purchase from her like he was just another villager? She knew she wasn't the only one who did so. Luckily, he stopped coming by after only a few times. She hadn’t seen him for months. And then when he finally showed up again, it was with that precious Ino and her friend Shikamaru. 

Kaede had watched Ino grow up. She remembered Inochi bringing her with him while he was shopping when she had just started walking. Inochi had put her down for a second while he was at a nearby stand and little Ino had toddled her way over to Kaede’s stall. She remembered how proud Ino was when her father let her shop alone for the first time. She was such a sweet child and so brave. So when she showed up with that boy behind her Kaede had nearly had a heart attack. He had already ruined so many lives, what would he do to Ino? But she didn’t want to start something in front of him for fear that he would get angry and the Nine-tails would wreak more havoc. So when Ino had appeared by herself the next time, Kaede tried to explain to her that he was dangerous and that she should stay away from him. But Ino was so stubborn and refused. And Kaede couldn’t tell her without violating the Third’s order and that could put Ino in even more danger. So she held her tongue when the two of them started coming to market together every week. She stopped trying to convince Ino to stop spending time with him because she wasn’t getting anywhere. Some of her friends who ran their own stalls had told her stories of other children declaring their attachments to Naruto. Kaede just couldn’t understand it. She knew most of these kids, they were good kids. What worth could they possibly be seeing in him?

“And then the smallest one crawled right into my lap,” she heard a voice she had begrudgingly become familiar with over the past few weeks say. So she mentally prepared herself for Ino and him to walk into view. She did her best to tune out his excited rambling about the Inuzuka puppies and just gave Ino the fish she wanted. She watched them walk away, grateful that she wouldn’t have to see them until next week. 

But… Yaeko had loved the Inuzuka dogs. She thought they had the coolest fighting style. One of her classmates was an Inuzuka and Yaeko would often come home with stories about the antics they and their dog had gotten up to that day. And Naruto had looked so happy talking about the one crawling into his lap. And apparently the Inuzuka trusted him enough to allow him around the puppies. Kaede just couldn’t wrap her head around it. He was a danger. He had to be. So many people thought so and treated him as such. They couldn’t all be wrong. The kids were just being naive. They didn’t understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it really cliche to have Kaede have a daughter (who I explicitly said earlier that Ino reminded her of) who died in the attack on the village? Yes, incredibly. But I figured if I was going to write it from a villager's pov, they might as well be someone who harbored a lot of resentment towards Naruto.
> 
> I always thought that eventually, the village's hatred of Naruto must have almost taken a back-seat to the fact that treating him like this was the status quo and stopping it meant dealing with the fact they had all abused a child for years. Of course, most probably wouldn't think about it in those terms, but that was still there.


	17. Hinata II

Hinata knew her family and clan did not approve of her friendship with Naruto. Besides being told by pretty much all her caregivers to stay away from him before she entered the academy, once her association with him was revealed, many clan members expressed their concerns about it. After the afternoon she and the others went on their rescue mission to get Naruto, she couldn’t really prevent her father from finding out why she missed school. She had stumbled back towards her room, exhausted by the mission and the conversation she had with Naruto. She had just wanted to collapse. But she saw her father standing outside his office, beckoning towards her, and obediently followed him inside. 

“Are you injured?” Was the first thing he asked her.

She shook her head, “No, I’m fine.”

He nodded abruptly then turned to the true matter at hand, “I heard that you left the academy without informing anyone to go on a foolhardy rescue mission for that boy, Naruto, with some of the other children in your class when you didn’t even know where he was or what kind of threat you would be facing, is that correct?”

Now, Hinata couldn’t stop herself from shrinking in on herself. When her father phrased it like that, it sounded beyond foolish. But at the time, it had seemed like the only thing they could do. Hinata forced herself to take a deep breath and resist the impulse to just automatically agree with her father’s characterization of their actions. She summoned the image of all of them gathered around laughing together at Ichiraku ramen, with Naruto safe and sound. She couldn’t regret any of her actions that led to that result and she had to communicate that to her father somehow. “Yes, we left the academy to go look for Naruto. But we sent Ino and Choji to get help in case the danger was more than we could deal with. And Shino had a general idea of where Naruto was and we figured Kiba could help us get a better idea once we got closer. And we had a plan- Shikamaru made sure of that. It wasn’t the best plan, but we felt like it was necessary to protect our friend.” Once Hinata started talking, she couldn’t stop. She needed her father to understand why she had done what she did. “And we were successfully able to get Naruto away from the enemy nin and escape ourselves long enough for help to arrive.” Kiba had given everyone the full story of the chase and Kakashi showing up.

Her father just looked at her for a few moments after she finished her explanation. “But you did not think it necessary to inform your teacher of what was going on?”

Hinata bit her lip, not sure how to explain the fact that Mizuki probably wouldn’t be responsive to their statements. She decided to say, “We didn’t think there was time and we didn’t know if he would take us seriously.”

“So you took matters into your own hands,” he commented.

Hinata found herself dropping his gaze, despite her best efforts. She was not quite sure what to say, since it was clear her father did not approve of their actions and that was not going to change, no matter what she said. Finally she decided to simply say, “We did what we thought was necessary to save our friend. Maybe it wasn’t the best plan but we had limited information and did what we could. I am sorry if I disappointed you, but Naruto is my friend and I will not be sorry for helping protect him.” Hinata could not believe she just said that. Based on her father’s face he could not either. But helping Naruto and then spending dinner with everyone had made her feel braver than she could ever remember feeling. Hinata waited for her father to respond, certain she was about to have the lecture of the century coming at her.

Instead he said, “I should let you rest. We can talk more tomorrow.”

Hinata gratefully took the dismissal, bowing her head and saying good night. As she left her father’s office, she noticed both Hanabi and Neji standing a little way down the hallway. She guessed they had heard most of what had been said. Not feeling up to dealing with that situation right now, she just nodded at both of them and hurried towards her room. She collapsed into bed, feeling exhausted, but content. She couldn’t wait to see everyone tomorrow.

Breakfast the next morning was quiet as it usually was. Hanabi kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye but did not break the silence. Her father made no move to speak to her further and so Hinata was able to leave for the academy without any incident. Her walk with Neji was likewise quiet. She never knew quite what to say to her cousin, with his father’s death hanging over them as always. She was relieved when they arrived and she could go to her classroom. She noticed that Naruto was not here yet, but Ino and Sakura gestured her over and she listened to Ino talk about flowers for a while before class started. Classes proceeded as normal, but something felt different. During lunch, Choji had invited everyone who was part of the rescue effort yesterday to share his lunch. Apparently his mother was a stress cooker and had been very stressed out by what happened yesterday, so he had a lot of food. Akamaru had flopped down by her side and let her pet him. Shino was explaining the insects he had used yesterday, and even Kiba was giving him his full attention. Even Mizuki’s glares, since he had apparently figured out their clan business excuse was fake, could not bring Hinata down. Growing up, she had longed for friends, people she could talk to and play with. But her shyness and her clan’s high standard for playmates had ended up isolating her. Sitting here now, she felt so happy. Nothing could ever make her regret the decisions that led her here.

She held onto that thought as she returned home and saw how many of the people in her clan looked at her in disapproval. Hinata knew she was not as strong as her clan wanted the heir to be. She never doubted that they loved her, but she knew many wished Hanabi was the heir. She tried so hard to make them proud of her and she never wanted to give them another reason to be disappointed in her.

“Hinata, are you okay?” Hanabi had come up beside her as she was lost in thought.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she assured her sister. “How was training today?”

Hanabi smiled, “Father said I am progressing well. He said he would teach me a new technique if I kept it up.”

“That’s great,” Hinata told her sister. “Want to spar together?” Hanabi happily agreed and they spent the next hour sparring. By the end of it, Hinata was breathing hard and had not won a single match. “Good job, Hanabi. You are very strong. Have you been enjoying the academy?”

Hanabi smiled hesitantly. “It’s okay. I know most of what we are covering right now, though.” Hinata was not surprised. The first few weeks focused on very basic techniques that most kids with shinobi parents already knew. She reached out her hand to pull Hinata to her feet. “Hinata?”

“Yes, what is it?” Hinata asked.

“You’re friends with that boy the clan doesn’t like. Naruto, isn’t it?” Hanabi said. “You got home late last night and I heard father saying you had gone outside the village to help someone.”

“Yeah, he was in trouble and some of my friends and I went to help him. Sorry if I made you worry.”

“You’re really friends with him?” Hanabi asked. “But I thought everyone said to stay away from him. Isn’t he dangerous or something?”

“Yes, I know the rest of the clan does not like him very much. But he is not dangerous, I swear. He is really sweet actually,” Hinata told her, blushing slightly. 

“You really care about him, don’t you?” Hanabi commented. “You have never purposefully defied Father before.”

Hinata waved her arms in denial, “I didn't mean to go against his wishes. But Naruto was in trouble and there was no time to get help and I wanted to make sure he was alright. And… it felt good,” Hinata admitted. “I know I’m not the strongest or bravest, but I was able to help him get to safety and we all got out of it okay. I liked knowing I was useful.” 

Hanabi rested a hand on her shoulder, “I don’t really understand what the situation is with Naruto or why everyone else doesn’t trust him. But I trust you and if you think he is a good person then I’ll believe you.”

“Thank you, Hanabi,” Hinata smiled, glad her sister at least believed in her.

“And, Hinata, I think you’re plenty brave,” Hanabi told her before hurrying down the hall. Hinata smiled. She always felt like she had let Hanabi down most of all. She wasn’t strong enough to give her a good sparring partner and felt like she spent far too much time leaning on Hanabi for emotional support instead of supporting her. So it meant so much to her that her sister still thought highly of her. She resolved to spend more time with her. Now that they were both in the academy, they had barely had any time to spend together outside of training. 

Despite her best efforts, it was clear her clan was quite set in their opinion of Naruto. That was apparent from the number of clan members who asked her every time they saw her if she was still friends with him and how her father reacted whenever she mentioned her friends at dinner. But Hinata refused to let that bother her. They were trying to change the whole villages’ minds about Naruto. So she just got more opportunities to practice convincing people than most of her friends. And she was making a difference! She always made sure to mention something positive about Naruto whenever anyone made a comment about him. At first, everyone just reacted with pursed lips and more warnings about staying away from him. But last week when she mentioned at dinner that Naruto had finally mastered the taijutsu move he had been working on for the past month, Daiki told her to congratulate Naruto for him and a couple of other people asked what he planned to work on next. It still was not perfect, but Hinata refused to back down, and slowly more and more of her clan members were talking about Naruto as the actual person he was not whatever demon they had projected onto him.

And then finally the day she had waited for for so long occurred. She knew most of her friends trained together Saturday morning and then usually hung out during the afternoon. She had never been allowed to go since her father insisted that she needed all the training she could get with the Byakugan. But this week, her father was out of the village on a mission and she had gotten his permission to go train with her friends, as long as she also worked on her Byakugan as well. Hinata was so excited. She got to see her friends at school but had hardly had the opportunity to see them outside of that. She wondered if they behaved any differently outside of school, but considering how rumbustious Kiba and Naruto were anyway, she doubted they really changed their behavior while at the academy. 

She was making her way towards the gate when she heard her sister’s voice, “Hinata? Where are you going?” She turned to face Hanabi, who was wearing training clothes and seemed to have been heading towards the training hall.

“I’m training with some of my friends today,” Hinata told her.

“Oh, have fun,” Hanabi told her, her face falling. Hinata instantly understood that her sister had intended to ask her if they could practice together that day. She was always amazed that Hanabi still wanted to train with her, but she did.

Hinata did want to spend time with her sister, but she had already promised her friends she would come today and she did not know she would get another chance to do this. Suddenly the obvious solution struck her, “Would you like to come with me?” she offered.

“What?” Hanabi asked.

“Come with me. I’m sure my friends would love to meet you and we would still be training. Father said I could go, so I don’t think he would have a problem with you coming along.” Hanabi still looked a little hesitant. “I would really like it if you came along,” Hinata sincerely told her, needing her little sister to know that she wanted to spend time with her.

“Alright,” Hanabi agreed. Hinata smiled and grabbed her hand to pull her along. They waved at the guards and set off towards her friends’ usual training spot. She had no doubt that at least one clan member would be watching over them from a distance but was not bothered by it. Maybe seeing how Naruto was when he was practicing would convince them he was a good person.

They were some of the last to arrive at the training spot. Naruto and Choji were already sparring as where Kiba and Shikamaru. Tenten and Ino were throwing kunai and Sakura, Sasuke, and Lee were working on taijutsu together. “Hinata,” she heard from behind her. She turned around to see Shino making his way towards her. 

“Hi, Shino,” she greeted. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too. This is your first time at one of these, correct?” Hinata nodded. “They are useful and also rather enjoyable,” he admitted. She noticed him glancing behind her.

“Oh, this is my sister, Hanabi. I hope it’s alright that I brought her along,” Hinata introduced them.

“It’s good to meet you, Hanabi, and I doubt anyone will mind,” Shino told her. At this point, Ino had noticed them and waved them over, stopping everyone so they could do a round of introductions. Hinata ended up separated from her sister for most of the morning, but her frequent glances over assured her she was doing alright. She had a productive spar with Shikamaru. He ended up pinning her but she was able to land a solid strike to his arm, which was an improvement. She practiced her throwing skills with Tenten for a while and even worked on taijutsu with Lee before they broke for lunch. Sensing that her sister was probably overwhelmed by all the people and noise she drew her a little way away from everyone else, so they could have lunch together under one of the trees.

“Are you doing alright?” Hinata asked, suddenly worried that Hanabi was not enjoying herself. “We can leave now if you want.”

Hanabi quickly shook her head, “No, I like it. I’m enjoying practicing with people with so many different skills. And they give me more of a challenge than anyone in my class,” Hanabi didn’t say that like she was bragging, she just said it as the fact it was. Her sister was very talented and it made sense most people in her class were not at her level just yet. “They’re all very nice and I am learning a lot. But they’re also…” here she trailed off, seeming to not know quite how to finish.

“Loud?” Hinata offered, laughing a little when Hanabi nodded emphatically. Hinata remembered how shocked she was when she first started hanging out with this group. She could count on one hand the number of times she had heard anyone in her clan raise their voices in her entire life up to that point, and suddenly she was surrounded by people (particularly Naruto and Kiba) who yelled all the time. It had scared her at first before she figured out it didn’t mean they were mad or anything, that’s just how they are.

“Lee hugged me,” Hanabi reported, sounding rather confused.

“He does that,” Hinata told her, still feeling rather amused. “If you don’t like it, just tell him. He won’t get offended. He’s just a very physical person.”

“I didn’t mind it,” Hanabi told her like she was saying a huge secret. “I had just done the sequence we were working on correctly for the first time and he just picked me up and spun me around and congratulated me. But it wasn’t even that hard of a technique, so why…”

Hinata understood her confusion. She had trained for years under her father and he hardly even told her when she had done well. He praised Hanabi a little bit more, but still not much. The first time Hanabi had thrown kunai in class, she had missed the target half the time. And Naruto told her good job afterward. She had not been able to understand it at the time. She had failed, just like she always did, but he still smiled at her. And it felt nice in a way she couldn’t quite explain. And all her friends were the same way. They never said she wasn’t good enough or needed to try harder. They kept supporting her no matter how many times she messed up and believed in her. So Hinata guiltily found herself looking forward to training with them more than she ever did with her father. 

“Every step forward is something to celebrate,” Hinata said, repeating something Lee had once told her, even if she had noticed he didn’t exactly follow his own advice. “It doesn’t mean you won’t keep improving but you should celebrate your achievements along the way. Lee just happens to celebrate with hugs.” 

She then noticed everyone else was standing up and stretching. Ino came towards the, “Hey, I know you two haven’t been to one of these before, so I figured I should explain the plan for the rest of the day. We’ll practice for a couple more hours and then we’ll usually hang out after that if people are free. Today, the plan is to converge on my family’s flower shop. That sound good to you?” 

Hinata glanced over at Hanabi to make sure she was alright with that. She had already gotten permission to be out until dinner. When she gave a nod, Hinata turned back towards Ino, “Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

“Great!” Ino told them before heading over to work on some combinations with Shikamaru and Choji. Hinata decided to head towards where Sakura, Kiba, and Naruto were sparring. She turned to ask Hinabi if she wanted to come with her but noticed she had already set off towards Tenten. She spent the next two hours during a series of two-on-two matches. It was fun. Hinata found that she and Kiba worked together rather well and Sakura, while not having the foundation the clan kids did, was a cunning opponent. Naruto's enthusiasm was infectious as always. Time sped by and before she knew it, they were calling it for the day. The whole group trouped over to the flower shop, where they spent several hours helping with basic tasks and listening to Ino explain the various properties of different plants. Hinata and Hanabi broke off from the group who were headed over to Ichiraku ramen so they could get home in time for dinner.

On the way back, Hanabi said, “I learned a lot today and I also enjoyed it.” She looked almost puzzled by that. Hinata nodded. Usually, training was rewarding because she knew she needed it to improve in order to better protect the village and make her family proud of her. But training with her friends was enjoyable in a more immediate sense.

“I’m glad. I enjoyed it too. It’s interesting to see everyone’s style, isn’t it?” Hanabi nodded, looking to be deep in thought. Hinata left her to it and they walked the rest of the way home in silence. No one commented on their absence during the day, although she did catch Neji sending them curious looks. But he looked away as soon as she caught his gaze. Hinata collapsed into bed that night feeling excited that she was able to share her friends with Hanabi. It meant so much to her that she had been able to spend time with her sister without concerns about being the heir or clan politics hanging over their heads. 

That day seemed to have really inspired Hanabi, too. She noticed that her sister talked to her classmates more afterward. They had both petitioned their father over and over again until he agreed to let them attend the Saturday session every other week, as long as they continued to improve. But the thing Hinata was most proud of that came out of their sessions wasn’t any improvement in their fighting ability but the way Hanabi now treated Naruto. She had been hesitant around him at first, never directly partnering up with him. But as time went on, she lost that caution and just started treating him like anyone else. The moment Hinata knew Hanabi had made up her mind about Naruto was when she overheard her telling a shopkeeper that Naruto was a good training partner and fun. Some people still didn’t approve and Hinata knew that some of them might never change their minds. But that didn’t matter. She had her friends and she had her sister. And while she still had difficulty believing in her own strength, but she had no difficulty believing in their combined power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SIbling bonding! Sorry for backtracking a little bit, but I wanted to explore Hinata and Hanabi's relationship a little bit more and felt like this was the best way to do it. Also, I know that they duel for being heir at some point and Hanabi wins, but I did not want to deal with that so I'm ignoring it for now. I might bring it back later if it fits in. 
> 
> I have a lot of feelings about how the Hyuga clan raises their child and none of them are good.
> 
> But just imagine in a couple of years Hinata and Hanabi learn that Nejo is going to be teammates with Lee and Tenten. They make bets over how soon Lee is going to out-stubborn Neji and convince him to accept Lee's hugs and how long it will take Tenten to punch Neji over saying something bad about Lee. 
> 
> I'm probably going to miss next week's update. My summer class had finals coming up. But I'll for sure be back in two weeks. Thank you to everyone who has commented or left kudos, they mean a lot.


	18. Kiba II

“Mom, is it alright if Naruto comes over this weekend?” Kiba asked at dinner on Thursday. 

“Fine with me. I don’t even know why you bother asking at this point. But you have to promise to exercise the puppies. Not that I’m too concerned about that with the two of you,” his mom replied.

“Oh, yeah when are you assigning partners?” Kiba asked. It was a couple of months into his third year at the academy and the time of year where the older puppies got matched up with their Inuzuka partners. 

“By the end of the month. There aren’t too many matches to make this year. But don’t worry about that, just tire those rascals out so everyone can get some sleep for the next few days,” his mom ordered. One of the puppies had grown tired of being confined in the pen and was not shy about letting everyone know of her displeasure by howling until late into the night. If Hana was here, she would probably joke that she was just like Kiba when they left him alone for too long when he was younger, but she was still away on her mission, It had been over six months now and Kiba admitted that he missed her. As annoying as she was, he missed bothering her while she worked at the veterinary clinic and bugging her until she practiced with him (and destroyed him every time). But he knew she’d make it back and he was excited to tell her everything that had occurred while she was gone.

“Cool. I’ll bring him over Sunday and maybe Friday too if he wants to come.” Saturday had been firmly established as group practice and hang out day. Getting the chance to see everyone he viewed as pack who was from outside the clan was an opportunity Kiba wouldn’t miss unless he really had to. Sure he saw everyone his age at the academy and he could still smell Tenten, Lee, and Hanabi, but he always wanted to see them more and make sure they were alright. Lee’s scent often had an undercurrent of sadness at school and Tenten’s had a strong scent of anger. Hanabi mainly just smelled bored, like his mom did after she had to sit through those meetings with the other clan heads where apparently nothing got done. So Kiba would take the opportunity to check up on them during their training sessions. Lee seemed happy enough to just be there, practicing with others. And had developed a strong kinship with Sasuke, so Kiba figured he was fine. He did still consider attacking the classmates who were mean to him but knew that would probably do more harm than good. (See, Hana, he thought things through. Sometimes.) Although he never really intended to use weapons much, he did enjoy practicing with Tenten. He looked forward to seeing what she would do when she got some real weapons, not just the crummy kunai she used currently. She also seemed much happier just to be away from her classmates. Hanabi was still a little uptight, in Kiba’s opinion, but when he sent Akamaru over to her when she was laying down for a break, she would laugh when he climbed over her and wrestle with him a bit. So there was hope for her yet. Kiba was going to help her and Hinata have as much fun as possible when they were away from their snooty clan. 

Naruto followed him home from the academy on Friday, as had become their routine. Once they got to the clan compound, they raced over to the enclosure that housed the puppies. Akamaru won the race, and Kiba beat Naruto, which he pouted about for a few seconds before lighting up at the sight of the puppies. Kiba happily opened the gate and crouched down, seeing Naruto do the same out of the corner of his eye, as the puppies ran towards. After rolling around on the ground with them for a little bit, Kiba urged everyone up so they could go run around in one of the fields. He made it a point to grab the loud troublemaker so she didn’t get any ideas about escape attempts. Kiba wondered who she would get partnered with. She needed someone to keep up with her energy and who would enjoy her mischievous side. She reminded him a little of Akamaru when he was a puppy. And Mom had said they were the perfect match since they could tire each other out. She yelped a little bit as he carried her over, but once she deposited her on the ground (after making sure the gate was closed) she nipped him once before running over to wrestle her siblings. They proceeded to have a very exciting afternoon. Kiba had to admit he was glad Naruto was with him since even he might have had difficulty keeping up with all of them at once. As it neared dinnertime, Kiba rounded everyone up and double-checked that he had the troublemaker before leading them back to the enclosure.

“They get their partners assigned soon, right?” Naruto asked. “I can’t wait to find out their names.”

Kiba nodded. Agreeing on a name was the first step in forging the bond between partners. For convenience’s sake, the clan named humans kids right away, but puppies weren’t named until they had a partner. It was one of the reasons the Inuzuka clan only used a few names for their kids to preserve some of that identity formation. Once a pair were partnered, both parties were identified by each other and so they didn’t need to worry about differentiating between the seven Kibas running around because each would be part of a pair that could be used to identify them. Once a pair was made, it would never be broken and if one partner died in battle, the other would never take another partner. 

“Well, thanks for having me over,” Naruto remarked after they had locked the enclosure back up. “I have to head out now because I promised Tenten I would stop at the market and get a few things for her.” It was only recently that Tenten and Lee started letting Naruto go to the marketplace alone. He had been going with Ino for a while, and that seemed to go alright. Most shopkeepers still smelled uncomfortable around him, but the pungent hatred had eased out of most of their scents. Kiba had taken note of the ones who still had it and notified Ino about them. She was careful to keep Naruto far away from them since it didn’t seem likely they would change their minds no matter what and protecting Naruto was more important anyway. After a few months of going with Ino, Tenten and Lee would sometimes bring him along when they visited the market. Since they usually went on Saturday mornings, there were way more people than when Naruto went with Ino. That had also gone pretty well. Of course, either Lee or Tenten stayed with him at all times, but unlike before none of the shopkeepers denied him service or lied about being out of things, as far as they could tell. It probably helped that their group had set up a rotating schedule so at least one of them would just happen to run into Naruto at the market and then they could voice their support for him if needed or glare shopkeepers into submission. Or well, Ino, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Shino would glare. Kiba would just send Akamaru to knock over their stuff and Choji, Hinata, and Sakura would just look disappointed, which was probably the most devastating. Hanabi had been a late joiner so she hadn’t had much of a chance to participate in this phase, but Kiba guessed she would fall pretty firmly into the glare camp.

Once they were sure no one would try and hurt Naruto physically or yell at him, Shikamaru suggested they start letting Naruto go alone for short visits. He had called a planning meeting one Saturday afternoon. Everyone was there except Naruto and Sasuke. They needed someone to distract Naruto and Sasuke was the best person to do it due to Naruto’s fixation on him. Plus Sasuke was still pretending he didn’t actually like any of them and didn’t care about Naruto so he usually wouldn’t say anything even if they did drag him to the plotting sessions. Although some of the others had protested, Shikamaru explained that they had progressed as far as they could doing what they were doing. They certainly hadn’t changed everyone’s minds or maybe even completely convinced anyone at all, but they had made some progress. But most people still wouldn’t talk directly to Naruto, instead choosing to address whoever was with him and try to ignore his existence. While this was better than being outwardly cruel to him, the villagers were not going to change their opinions if they could just not deal with Naruto. They had ensured he wouldn’t be harmed physically or be subjected to the treatment he had been before to the best of their ability, so they needed to push for the next step. Shikamaru assured them that he planned on having someone watching from a distance the first few times Naruto went to ensure Naruto’s safety and that no one backtracked now that the rest of them weren’t around. And he admitted that this had the potential to go wrong and a random villager could say something that really hurt Naruto, but he argued they needed to do it. They couldn’t just stop after they convinced the villagers to stop showing their hatred of Naruto. “He deserves better than to be silently resented while people outwardly tolerate his presence,” Shikamaru said, sounding surprisingly passionate for him. “We need to show everyone how kind he truly is and convince them that whatever they were basing their opinions of him on, they are wrong.” After that speech, everyone eventually agreed.

Kiba had been the one to follow Naruto the first time he had gone alone. He was able to track Naruto easily by scent but still stay far enough that Naruto wouldn’t suspect anything. Plus, he would be able to tell if Naruto became scared or worried based on his scent. And if he didn’t wear his usual clothes and didn’t call Akamaru by name, most people probably wouldn’t realize who he was. People outside the clan tended to think Inuzkua looked similar and not realize the differences in markings. So he could fade to the background as just another Inuzuka kid and people wouldn’t realize he was there for Naruto so he could gauge how people would treat Naruto when his self-styled protectors weren’t around.

And that day had gone fairly well. Kiba wasn’t close enough to hear most of what was said, but he did notice that everyone did serve Naruto and he seemed to be able to get everything he needed. Tenten confirmed this later, saying Naurot had gotten everything on the list she had given him and hadn’t said anything about experiencing difficulties. Given Naruto’s personality, they all knew better than to believe he would actually tell them if something was wrong, but the next few people who observed his excursions had reported no incidents. Kiba could still smell fear and some anger in most villagers when they were around Naruto, but it was less than before and he could detect regret in some of their scents as well. So they were, as Shikamaru put it, “monitoring and situation and determining what further actions are necessary.”

“Well have fun at the marketplace,” Kiba told Naruto. “I’ll see you tomorrow at training.”

“Yeah, see ya. You think Tenten will allow me into the kitchen soon if I can bring home the supplies without breaking anything?” Naruto wondered.

Kiba hummed, definitely not wanting to touch that question. “Well, you never know.” The honest answer was not anytime soon, given how frantic Tenten’s gaze got whenever Naruto was anywhere near the kitchen, but he didn’t want to crush his friend’s dreams. 

Naruto seemed content with that response and waved good-bye to the puppies one last time before he ran off. Kiba waved at him. He suppressed the urge to follow Naruto to make sure he would be okay. There had not been any incidents any of the times before and Naruto needed this. Kiba knew that Naruto had picked up on some of their plotting, even if he didn't know all the details. Naruto was a lot smarter than most gave him credit for, especially when it came to understanding people. They needed to let him do some things on his own. He knew if Naruto didn’t get home soon, Tenten would come raging out, with Lee just behind her. He’d be fine. Kiba forced himself to turn back towards his house for supper. Who knows what his mom would do if he was late again, although you would think she would be used to it by now. He did get most of his personality traits from her, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter today, so sorry about that. Just let me shove some of my Inuzuka headcannons in there for good measure.
> 
> So I have found out that showing slow change in people's opinions from an outside pov is not an easy task. Yeah, the kids can talk about what they observe, but it can't really capture the process. That's why I have decided to start using time skips. I'll include more about people's treatment of Naruto after the rest of the kids have kind of backed off publicly in the final chapter, where we will finally get Naruto's pov. So the next chapter will skip to their second-to-last year in the academy and we'll go from there.


	19. Choji II

Choji had no idea where Lee got the idea his mother was the ideal training instructor. He knew she had been a jonin before she had married his father but as long as he could remember, she had never really left the village. He had asked her about it one time when his father was away on a mission. She had laughed and told him, “Well someone needs to be here to look after the clan. Goodness knows what your uncles would do if we left them in charge.” Choji had to admit she had a point. He loved his uncles, but they were not big on planning beyond what to eat for dinner (which, to be fair, was a very important thing). She would sometimes help him with training or explain chakra manipulation in a way that made more sense, but she was never the person he first thought to go to if he was struggling with a new technique. 

But Lee had somehow decided that she would be a great help with their training and so Choji decided to humor him and asked her to accompany him to one of their Saturday sessions. That first session she didn’t do much, mainly just watching them. But she did bring a fantastic lunch, which everyone greatly appreciated. However, she continued coming back and each time she would do a little more. She mainly stuck to the people who were practicing taijutsu. Choji would glance over to see her explaining something, with Lee looking at her with intense focus while Sasuke pretended not to be interested, and whoever else was with them fell somewhere in between. Choji thought that was the extent of her involvement until he got home early from hanging out with Shikamaru and Ino and found Tenten and Lee practicing with his mom in the yard. Lee was running through some forms while Tenten circled him, throwing weapons every so often that he would have to dodge without breaking his flow. They both waved cheerfully to him when they saw him and he waved back, deciding to just accept it and ask his mom about it later. They stayed for dinner that night and were not able to stop his mom from sending them home with several containers of leftovers. 

When he brought up the topic to his mom later, she smiled and explained, “I’ve been doing some extra training sessions with them. Since neither of them focuses on traditional jutsus, they don’t have as much of a chance as other students to get advice and hone their specialties. I was also a mainly taijutsu fighter and have some experience with a variety of weapons so I can give them some pointers, although they really do need a teacher who is more experienced in those areas.” Choji nodded, still unsure why she had taken such an interest in Lee and Tenten. She had always cared about his friends but had never taken them under her wing for training like she apparently had with those two. He wondered if this was an elaborate scheme to get them to eat more since that was understandably a large concern for both of them.

“Plus,” his mom added, taking a moment to organize her thoughts, “they need to succeed. They have the odds stacked against them, more so for Lee than Tenten, and achieving their dreams will not be easy.” Choji had never really thought about it that way. To him, Lee and Tenten were amazingly strong. No one could ever come close to matching Tenten with kunai or shrunken. Lee regularly practiced against Sasuke, which made Choji feel exhausted just thinking about it. He had no doubt they were capable. But he also remembered looking out the window one day while Tenten and Lee’s class was having lunch and seeing the two of them huddled against the tree, not talking to anyone else and then getting up to practice for the second half of their lunch period. He knew from Naruto that they weren’t close to anyone in their class and remembered Naruto enlisting everyone’s help to pull an elaborate prank on their teacher because she had told Lee he should give up on his dream of becoming a shinobi.

“If they can’t pass out of the academy and whatever test their jonin instructor assigns them, they’ll probably never even make chunin. Not to say being lifetime genin isn’t a valuable position or important to the village, but it would destroy them.” Here she trailed off. “They are already so strong and could be so much more, with the right help.” Choji thought about the career genin he saw around the village. They mainly completed manual labor, maybe accompanied a team on a mission outside the walls a few times a year. He tried to imagine Lee or Tenten in that position and just couldn’t. Lee would go stir crazy and wouldn’t ever be able to show people what he had achieved through all his training. Tenten would say it didn’t bother her, she was just happy to get regular pay, but Choji had seen the way she looked at some of the complicated weaponry in shops and how she talked about Tsundre. She dreamed as much as Lee, even if she wasn’t as obvious about it.

Suddenly feeling very concerned about them, he asked, “Do you think they’ll pass?”

His mom sighed, “I wish I could tell you. I think Tenten will at least graduate from the academy. She doesn’t have great chakra control, but she should have enough to get by. As for whether she passes her jonin’s test? That’s almost impossible to determine until I know who her teacher is going to be. As for Lee, well, you know that students have to perform some basic jutsus in order to graduate and we both know Lee will not be able to do those. I know of a couple of people who have been granted exceptions in the past, but very few.” Seeing how concerned his face grew, she smiled, “But don’t you worry too much. You know those two aren’t going to give up and I’ll do my best to get them ready to face any challenge.”

“Thanks, Mom.” She pulled him into a hug.

“Now, I’ve been working on a new dessert. Think you can help me taste-test it?” Choji happily agreed and the matter was dropped. They never talked about it again, but Choji grew used to coming home to Lee and Tenten doing some crazy training exercises in their yard. He waved but otherwise didn’t want to bother them. He wanted to do something to help them but wasn’t sure what. It took him a few days, but he finally realized the obvious solution. If Lee and Tenten were training with his mom, that meant they couldn’t be doing their usual training with Naruto. And he was sure they would feel guilty about that, even if he was also sure Naruto had repeatedly told them it was fine. But Naruto probably did feel lonely. 

So the next day when they left the academy, Choji fell into step alongside Naruto. “Hey, are you heading to the usual spot?” he asked. After Naruto nodded, he continued, “Mind if I tag along? I’ve been meaning to work on that move we learned yesterday.” Naruto nodded again, looking confused. Choji didn’t blame him. He usually went home straight after school to eat and recharge for a bit before attempting any kind of practice. So he was one of the last people anyone would have expected to spontaneously volunteer for a training session after a full day of classes. But thankfully Naruto didn’t question his motivations and instead started describing the spar he and Sasuke had had that day. Considering Choji had been watching the whole thing, he didn’t really need a blow-by-blow recap, but he let Naruto chatter on, happy that he was doing alright enough to get annoyed at Sasuke. If ever a day came when Sasuke did something and Naruto didn’t have a loud reaction to it, he’d know something was really wrong. 

They practiced for a while until Choji’s stomach made its displeasure at him for skipping his afternoon snack known. Just when they were about to part ways, Naruto spoke up, “Tenten and Lee are practicing with your mom, right?” Choji nodded. “And they’re doing fine, right? They’ll pass? Out of the academy? They won’t be held back, right?” Naruto got more and more frantic as he went on.

“Naruto, breath,” Choji instructed. “I honestly haven’t seen much of their training sessions, but Mom thinks they are doing well and will probably graduate.” He didn’t mention her concerns about them passing their jonin teacher’s test since Naruto probably didn’t even know that was a thing and he didn’t need any extra stress at the moment. What Choji didn’t understand was why he was so worked up. This had to be something more than just wanting his friends to achieve their dreams. But he didn’t know how to ask that without pushing too hard. If only Ino was here, she’d know just what to say.

Luckily, Naruto continued on without any prompting, “It’s just that they’ve spent so much time taking care of me and helping me with my practice. What if they haven’t been able to properly devote themselves to their own training because they’ve been too busy helping me? What if they don’t pass and it’s all my fault?” And this point Naruto was barely holding back tears and was rocking back and forth, unable to contain himself.

Now Choji really wished Ino was here. Or Shikamaru. Or basically any of their friends. Maybe not Sasuke-he was pretty bad at dealing with emotions, his own, or anyone else’s. Choji stood paralyzed for a moment, so afraid of saying the wrong thing. But there was no one else here and Naruto clearly needed comfort, so he would just have to do his best. “Tenten and Lee love you,” he began, needing to remind Naruto of that. “Anyone can see how much they care about you. And you know better than anyone how stubborn they are. Nothing would ever make them stop.”

“But that’s what makes it so terrible,” Naruto yelled. “I might ruin their dream, and they would still care about me and tell me it’s fine.”

“You won’t ruin their dream. They’re going to be amazing shinobi and come back and tell us stories about all the cool missions they get to go on and make us jealous that we have to wait another year.” He kept talking over Naruto’s attempt, “And you really think they haven’t been able to practice enough? I’m pretty sure Lee practices more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Even Sasuke was impressed by him, and you know how much Sasuke practices.” Naruto gave a weak smile at that, probably remembering the two of them comparing routines. “And Tenten can hit the target blindfolded, with high winds, from all the way across the field. She’s one of the most terrifying people I’ve ever met and I grew up with Ino.” That got a laugh. Knowing that he needed to address the possibility of the worst-case scenario, he slid his arms around Naruto’s shoulders and pulled him close, “And even on the off-chance they don’t graduate, they won’t give up. They have more chances, and you’ll be there to help them with their training just like they have been there for you, right?”

“Right, they’re going to do great and I’ll support them every step of the way!” Naruto shouted, suddenly back to his usual energetic self. “And, Choji, thanks.” Choji waved him off, glad that he was able to say the right things and get through to Naruto.

“Come over to my place for dinner,” he offered. “I’m sure Lee and Tenten are eager to tell you about the results of their training and my mom has been mentioning that she wanted to have you over some time.” Naruto looked uncertain for a moment so Choji decided to reel him in, “She’s making ramen tonight.” That got Naruto’s attention and he happily followed Choji back to his place. Walking through the village with Naruto didn’t draw near as many stares as it had a few years ago. No one obviously went out of their way to avoid them and some even waved to them as they walked by. Choji was glad to see their plan was still progressing. Backing off had been hard since they were all so worried Naruto would get hurt, but they knew it was necessary. And it seemed to have gone pretty well. Naruto wasn’t going to be winning any popularity contests anytime soon, but he could at least go about his daily life without having people’s irrational hatred of him constantly thrown in his face. Choji again marveled at how strong his friend truly was to be able to keep moving forward and not grow bitter due to how everyone had treated him.

Just as Choji thought, Lee and Tenten were in the yard, sparring. He let Naruto run over to watch them before slipping up next to his mom so he could request ramen for dinner. She had laughed, but agreed, instructing Lee and Tenten to do some cool-down stretches once they were done and informing them that they and Naruto were staying for dinner. 

The next day, Choji pulled Ino and Shikamaru aside to mention Naruto was getting a bit lonely after school and suggesting they see if anyone was free to practice with him some days. Luckily, most of them were. Sakura couldn’t make it because her mother wanted her home right after classes and Hinata and Hanabi had to practice with their clan most afternoons, but the rest of them made it a point to practice with Naruto at least once a week. Kiba’s sister Hana even stopped by a few times. Those days, training usually just devolved into everyone present working to beat her and the Haimaru Brothers. They never succeeded, but it was good practice anyway. Those sessions were not nearly as intense as their Saturday ones, but they were still fun and gave Choji a chance to practice some skills he wouldn’t have if he was on his own.

Like that, their second-to-last year in the academy sped by. His dad started teaching him more of their clan techniques and talking about combination moves with the Nara and Yamanaka. It was tiring, but Choji felt happy he was learning moves that could help him protect his friends better. 

The closer to the end of the year they got, the more obviously stressed Lee and Tenten became. Not that they would ever admit that they shared Naruto’s stubborn refusal to tell people when they weren’t doing well after all. But it was obvious from how tired they looked. Lee swung back and forth between even more aggressively cheerful and loud than usual and far too quiet. Tenten was even more scarily focused than normal.

The week before their graduation exam, they pretty much moved into Choji’s house. It was a struggle even for his mom to convince them to. Tenten was almost as stubborn as his mom, but his mom had decades of experience in staring down uncooperative clan members and triumphed in the end after many assurances that the rest of Naruto’s friends would look after him and bring him food so he didn’t try to cook for himself. It was a good idea since he was sure if his mom left them to their own devices they wouldn’t have taken breaks for sleeping and eating beyond the bare minimum. But she made sure they were getting their rest and eating regularly. Choji wasn’t home that much that week, spending most of his time with Naruto. Pretty much the whole Saturday crowd from their year gathered every afternoon for training that week, desperate for a distraction. Even Hinata and Hanabi had been able to convince their father to let them come by a few times. 

The night before the exam, Choji walked outside to the deck because he couldn’t sleep and found Lee and Tenten. They were sitting next to each, gazing up at the stars. Tenten had her head on Lee’s shoulder and Lee’s arm was wrapped around her waist. Lee was without his customary grin and Tenten was clenching and unclenching her hand over and over again. Choji took a seat a little way away from them, deciding to let them speak first if they so desired.

“No matter what happened, you’ll keep looking out for Naruto, right?” Choji wasn’t surprised that protecting Naruto was their first priority. The three of them really were similar in their dedication to protecting their friends while ignoring their own needs and insecurities. He wasn’t sure if Naruto got it from them or if it was just a product of their shared childhood experiences.

“You know we will,” he replied, sounding a lot calmer than he actually felt. 

Tenten gave an abrupt nod and Lee mustered up a weak smile. Seeing them like this scared Choji a little. He always thought that the two of them were so strong and could face down any challenge. He himself had never given any thought to why he wanted to be a shinobi. His family had been shinobi for generations and it was the only acceptable path open to him. He wanted to be able to protect his friends and the village, but he had never wanted it with the fervent desire that Tenten and Lee did. But he already felt confident in his ability to pass when his time came while it was obvious that Lee and Tenten did not. And so he couldn’t just tell them not to worry, that he was sure they would pass. Because he wasn’t and to give them false platitudes would be an insult to how hard they worked to even get this far. But he needed to tell them something, to let them know how valuable they truly were.

“Whatever happens tomorrow, I know you will have done everything possible to succeed. All the training and help you have given us over the years has helped shape all of us and we will never forget it. I believe in you and the talents you have worked so hard to develop. So knock them dead tomorrow, alright?”

That got a true grin out of Lee and Tenten even laughed a little. “Don’t worry about us,” she said. “You know we’re far too stubborn to fail here.”

Lee nodded, “Tell Naruto we’ll meet you all after everything is over to celebrate, alright?” Choji grinned and promised. He got up and padded back towards the house. He turned around to see the two of them, leaning against each other completely, and gazing at the night sky. They would succeed and he hoped they got placed on the same team so they could continue supporting each other. If that was the case, he kind of felt bad for whoever was their third teammate. They were probably in no way ready to deal with the insanity that was the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me I'm just creating an extensive backstory in my head for Chihiro, who has like two seconds of screen time and doesn't even have a canon name.
> 
> Honestly, how Lee passed the academy is something I've always wondered about. Given how focused their society is on powerful jutsu/chakra and the fact that Naruto, who can mold chakra, initially failed, I can only imagine that the Hokage or someone else high up intervened and told his teacher to pass him and place him on Gai's team to see if he could be able to use the gates. And/or Kakashi saw how excited Gai got about Lee, realized that if the kid didn't pass, Gai would be upset about it and probably try to talk about his feelings to Kakashi even more, which he was not prepared for, and so convinced the Hokage to pass the kids and give him Gai to see what happened. Of course, this kind of backfired, since now Gai won't shut up about how precious his genin are, but at least he's happy.


	20. Sasuke II

Sasuke always paid attention in class. He already knew pretty much everything that was said, but he listened anyway, on the look-out for a tip or technique that could help him improve. But today, he couldn’t bring himself to concentrate. And he wasn’t the only one. Everyone who attended their practice sessions was distracted. Some were more obvious about it than others. Naruto had given up even the pretense of paying attention and was intensely staring at the wall that bordered Tenten and Lee’s classroom like it could tell him how their friends were doing even though the exams hadn’t even started yet. Kiba had slipped Akamaru out the window and Sasuke supposed he was spying for the Inuzuka. But even Shikamaru’s window staring seemed more pointed than usual and Ino had flat out ignored Mizuki when he called on her to answer a question. Sasuke absentmindedly noted that their teacher was growing madder and madder, but he didn’t really care. The man wasn’t anything impressive and Sasuke had learned more from his friends than he ever learned from him. It was probably fortunate for everyone involved that they only had a half-day on the last day of class for the year. During the afternoon, the rest of the teachers had to help with facilitating the graduation exams so everyone who wasn’t graduating had the afternoon off.

Their group had already made plans to practice together for the afternoon. Sasuke couldn’t believe how anxious he felt. He wasn’t the one who had to take the test. But he just kept picturing Lee’s face if he didn’t pass. He knew the older boy would try to keep a brave face for everyone else, but Lee was terrible at hiding how he was really feeling, so his sorrow would be displayed for everyone to see. Sasuke wasn’t as close to Tenten, but he wanted her to succeed as well. 

Mizuki finally released them, although not before giving a lecture about making sure they kept practicing during the weeks they had off. They waited long enough to pick up Hanabi before going to their field. By an unspoken agreement, they decided to work on solo moves.

Sasuke claimed the spot where he and Lee usually practiced taijutsu for himself and started his stretches. As he started working through one of the sequences, his mind drifted to how their friends were doing. He felt frustrated because Lee had done so much for him and he didn’t know if he had helped the other boy at all. It was because of Lee that Sasuke was even willing to acknowledge this group as his friends.

A few months after he started regularly attending the training sessions, he and Lee were taking a water break. Sasuke honestly couldn’t remember how they got on the topic since he usually just listened to Lee ramble about whatever he wanted, but somehow they were talking about strength and where it came from. Sasuke remembered being very insistent that strength was the result of your own training and nothing else. Relying on others simply meant you were not strong enough to succeed by yourself.

Lee had grown quiet at his statement, which was what clued Sasuke in on the fact he was about to say something serious. “I understand where you are coming from, Sasuke,” Lee said. “Shinobi often face situations where they need to succeed through their own strength. That is why we practice so much so that when the time comes we can protect ourselves and not be a burden to our team.” Sasuke mainly practiced so he would be strong enough to confront his brother, but Lee’s reasoning was probably the more common one so he nodded along. “But I don’t think it would be correct to say that strength only comes from yourself. I don’t know if I would have made it this far without the support of Tenten, Naruto, and everyone else. There are days where I go home at night and feel like I have not progressed at all. That I am stuck motionless while everyone around me gets further ahead. That I will never achieve my dreams. And those nights Naruto stays as late as he can, talking about anything and everything to get my mind off it. And when he leaves he always tells me the same thing, “You are the strongest person I know,” repeats it until I acknowledge it. Tenten will go out of her way to make my favorite meals even if we are low on funds. And at night, we’ll curl up together and she’ll talk about all the missions we are going to go on once we make genin. And when Tenten cuts her hands so many times, she can’t do anything without feeling pain, Naruto will bandage them for her and I’ll do everything around the apartment until she recovers. And when she worries that she’ll let us down or will never be remembered, we’ll sit on the couch and talk about everything she has done for us-from stealing food back at the orphanage to walking us through how to throw a kunai over and over again until we both go it. And on the days when the hatred from the village overwhelms Naruto, we’ll take him over to Ichiraku’s and let him eat as much as he wants and then go back to our place and talk about everything he will accomplish once he becomes Hokage.” Lee finally took a breath. “All of us know there will be times when we can’t help each other. This exam Tenten and I both have to pass on our own. And we will, we are youthful and full of power! But not all strength can be acquired through training. No matter how hard I train, being called a hot-headed loser by my classmates hurts. It makes me feel helpless. But with Tenten and Naruto by my side, I find the strength to move forward. I want to be a shinobi not because I want fame or want to kill, but because I want to protect my friends and this village. So my strength will never just come from me, but always draws on those around me. “ Lee let out a little laugh. “That probably sounds foolish when I say it out loud, but it is what is in my heart so I cannot help but give it a voice.” He turned towards Sasuke, “Haven’t you felt yourself get better once you started practicing with everyone else?”

Sasuke had to admit that was true, but still… “Having the opportunity to fight against people with a variety of styles has helped my combat abilities.”

Lee shook his head, “You’re definitely right, but for me, it is so much more than that. Sasuke, do you think you are strong?”

Sasuke wanted to say yes. He had practiced every day of his life since that fateful night to get stronger, to be good enough. But, as much as he hated to admit it, at his current level, he was no match for Itachi. He hadn’t even activated his Sharingan. So that must mean he was still weak. But he could beat most people in their group almost every time he fought against them. Does that mean all of them were even weaker? A few years ago, he would not have hesitated to say yes, but now he saw how hard Naruto threw himself into training, how Shikamaru appeared lazy, but was also thinking and planning, how Hinata kept getting back up no matter how many times she got knocked down, how Sakura was learning how to use her classroom smarts in actual fights, and how Lee gave everything he had, even when he couldn’t mold chakra at all. He had spent years training with these people, seeing their triumphs and their struggles, learning their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing everything he knew about them, he could not just write off all of them as weak. 

Something of his thoughts must have shown in his face, “I think you’re strong, Sasuke,” Lee said, with no hesitation in his voice. “From your dedication to training to how you continue to move forward despite what happened to your family.” Sasuke was rather surprised Lee actually said that. Usually, people tried to avoid referring to that night explicitly while he was around. Not that their dancing around the topic actually made it any easier. “I've enjoyed the time I’ve spent practicing with you and getting to know you. I feel that if it ever becomes necessary, I will have no problem trusting you to defend our friends or complete a mission. And I hope we’ve made your life a little better, too.” Memories flashed before Sasuke’s eyes. Him and Naruto wrestling while everyone else was yelling predictions and encouragement from the sidelines. That had been the first day he remembered laughing since that night. On the first anniversary of that night, Akamaru had curled up in his lap all day during school and Ino stopped anyone who tried to talk to him. On one of the days where he felt so overwhelmed and distressed that he couldn’t bring himself to get out of bed, Choji came over with food. He didn’t try to make him talk, just sat by him, and encouraged him to eat. And of Lee, who was always up for a spar if Sasuke needed to work off some excess energy. 

“I know you will find your own way to be strong,” Lee continued. “Even if you don’t agree with me about where strength comes from, I trust you will find your true strength and use it to protect our friends.” With that, he offered Sasuke a hand to help him up and they resumed their training. But Sasuke couldn’t get what Lee said off his mind. Strength came from others? And Lee thought he would use his strength to protect their friends? Sasuke had made very clear what his goal was and it was not protecting anyone. But Sasuke had to admit that finding his own strength was appealing. Until that night he had spent every second of his time trailing after Itachi, trying to copy him, to make him proud. When he woke up after witnessing their deaths over and over again, he felt so lost. Not just because his entire clan was dead, but because the person he had admired and used as his reference of what the perfect shinobi was had been the one who had slaughtered them. Even though he knew he needed to train to get stronger and defeat Itachi, for the first week he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn’t make himself practice the techniques Itachi and his father had taught him, knowing that they were building blocks to the techniques that Itachi used to kill almost everyone he loved. But he had forced himself to, and he had become stronger. He was the strongest in the class. And then he started practicing with that group, and everything he knew about strength seemed to go out the window. Sakura’s chakra reserves were pitiful, even if her control was impressive and Naruto had the opposite problem. Kiba used the same moves all the time while Shino was always trying to do new things with his insects, some of which worked out better than others. Ino had seemed so easy to dismiss until he saw her truly give her all in a match against Shikamaru. Lee couldn’t even use jutsus but never gave up and Tenten, who Sasuke had never seen use more than an E-rank earth jutsu but could best him in target practice. And they truly did draw strength from each other. And not just that they would learn from each other and give each other advice, but when Sakura was so frustrated she was about to give up, Ino would go over to her and encourage her. When Hinata got knocked down, she would often glance over at Naruto, which seemed to give her the strength to get back up each time. Choji practiced hardest when he, Shikamaru, and Ino were working together. 

Sasuke at first thought these bonds were just crutches that would eventually cripple the people who relied on them, but he was proven wrong. Sakura and Hinata both grew more confident in themselves over time and while it was still clear that their friends meant a lot to them, Hinata stopped glancing at Naruto and would instead just take a deep breath and get back up and Sakura stopped even thinking about giving up on anything. Choji, Shikamaru, and Ino still obviously relied on each other for support but pushed themselves to improve in individual training as well. The more he observed, the more Sasuke found himself desperately hoping that he was right. Because he didn’t want to do what Itachi told him (“Kill your best friend and then come find me”). 

So he started trying to open up to the group more. Not just about struggles he encountered when training, but he admitted he had had trouble sleeping the night before when Kiba asked. That day, Akamaru had spent the whole time they were in class sitting next to Sasuke and occasionally headbutting him for pets. It was surprisingly relaxing and helped Sasuke take his mind off his nightmares. The next day, Shino had dropped a box on his desk without saying anything. When Sasuke examined it later, he discovered it was a kind of tea that was supposed to help calm people down. It did help. 

Sasuke never said anything to Lee, but the other boy had given him his signature thumbs up a couple of weeks after their conversation and told him he was glad Sasuke was continuing to increase his strength. Admitting these people were his friends and that losing them would hurt just like losing his family had been hard. But seeking to deny it when the feeling was there was foolish and wouldn’t do him any good so he gradually found himself accepting it. And he threw himself into training with all the intensity he had before. He would use his strength to protect his friends, although given how much they all put into training, he trusted they would be able to defend themselves as well.

So it made him anxious that Lee was facing a challenge by himself and even worse, it was a challenge Lee couldn’t overcome by sheer determination. Everyone knew you had to successfully demonstrate a higher level jutsu in order to graduate from the academy. And they all also knew Lee couldn’t mold chakra to save his life. So logically, there was no way Lee could pass the exam. But Sasuke still found himself feeling hopeful for some reason. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but if there ever was someone who could overcome this obstacle by stubbornness alone, it was Lee.

“They’re coming,” Shino suddenly spoke, turning in the direction of the academy. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered together, waiting to hear how their friends had done. Tenten and Lee burst into the clearing, and it was clear from the second Sasuke saw their faces that they had both passed. Ino was the first one to react, letting out a shriek of excitement and running to tackle both of them in a hug. The rest of them followed after her and the next few minutes was pure chaos with everyone shouting congratulations and hugging the two of them. Lee had practically picked Sasuke off his feet with the hug he gave him.

After a while, everyone at least marginally calmed down, enough for their two older friends to explain what happened. Tenten told them that they had been asked to do a transportation jutsu, from one end of the classroom to the other. “I barely managed it,” she admitted. “I was a few feet off target, but they let me pass anyway.”

They then turned to Lee. “I did not manage to do the transportation jutsu,” he told them, to no one’s surprise. “But our teacher, Aya, told me they were making an exception for me and they wanted me to do a physical endurance test instead. That wasn’t hard at all. It was less than what I do in training every day! But apparently that was enough for me to pass. However, Aya also said this was my only chance and if the jonin assigned to my team did not think I could make it as a shinobi, they could prevent me from continuing. I am not worried,” he assured them. “I’m sure I will be able to convince my jonin teacher to allow me to pursue my training.” Sasuke hoped so.

“I’m so happy for both of you,” Ino told them while everyone else nodded their agreement. “I can’t wait to hear about all the adventures you have as genin. Now, let’s go, the food is getting cold.”

“What food?” Tenten asked, confused. 

“The food Chihiro made for your graduation party, of course,” Ino explained. “What, you really thought we would let this day go by without celebrating it?” Sasuke hadn’t heard anything about a party but wasn’t too surprised. He suspected Ino arranged the whole thing and only told the people who were absolutely necessary since she didn't want it to get out and make them feel even worse if one or both of them didn’t pass. With minimal protests, Ino got everyone moving towards Choji’s house. When they got there, Choji’s mom was waiting for them by the front door and pulled both Tenten and Lee into hugs the second they were in the door. Sasuke moved past them since it seemed like they might be chatting for a while. He was surprised at the number of people already there. He had assumed it would just be their group and maybe Choji’s parents. But the parents of most people in the group were there as well. Shikaku, Choza, and Inochi were talking in the corner, and Tsume and Yoshino were chatting as well. Hana had come over to ruffle Kiba and Naruto’s hair as soon as they barrelled inside and the Haimaru brothers followed after her. Sasuke saw Shino walk over to a man who he guessed was his father. He wasn’t quite sure who to talk to. Most of his friends had gravitated towards their relatives. So he was glad when Hanabi and Hinata came over to him. No one from their family had come.

“We probably won’t be able to stay long,” Hinata told him. “Our cousin graduated today as well and we want to congratulate him as well.”

“Hm, not like he’ll care,” Hanabi muttered.

“Hanabi,” Hinata chastised her. 

Hanabi just kind of shrugged, “What he hasn’t exactly made an effort to conceal his dislike for us.”

“It’s complicated,” Hinata argued. “You know what happened with-” she broke off, looking apologetically at Sasuke. “Sorry, our relationship with Neji is complex and often fraught."

Sasuke shrugged, he didn’t know much about the guy except that he was apparently a very good fighter and Tenten was often annoyed at him.

Soon after that, Tenten, Lee, and Chihiro made their way inside and the party started in earnest. There was, unsurprisingly, a vast amount of food. He honestly didn’t recognize all the dishes, but since it was mostly made by Choji’s family, he figured it would all be good. He was right. After everyone had enough food to satisfy them (for now), they moved on to giving their friends the presents they had brought for them. Despite not knowing about the party until very recently, everyone had brought gifts with them that day.

Sasuke gave Tenten some weapons scrolls he had found in his clan’s weapons vault, figuring she would get more use out of them than he would. He guessed most people would give Tenten some kind of weapon. Lee was harder to shop for since his fighting style didn’t need much equipment and Lee would never ask for anything for himself. So Sasuke had gotten him some weights, a lot of bandages, and a piece of paper promising that he would practice with Lee when he wasn’t on missions. The last one was recommended by Ino and while it felt kind of silly to Sasuke (of course he was going to practice with Lee-he was one of the few people who could keep up with him), given the way Lee burst into tears and hugged him again when he saw it, it was worth it. Ino looked rather smug and shot him a thumb’s up when he looked her way. 

True to his prediction, Tenten got a lot of weapons. Hinata and Hanabi gave her a set of new kunai before they had to leave. Kiba and his family gave her a set of long daggers while Shino gave her sealing paper and brushes. Choji’s, Ino’s, and Shikamaru’s families had gone in a gift together and gotten her a set of swords of all different styles, “So you can try them out and find out which style you like best, dear,” he heard Chihiro explaining to her. Sakura was the only one who didn’t give her some kind of weaponry. Instead, she gave her a book that chronicled some of Tsundre’s feats. He didn’t know what Naruto got her or Lee. He had pressed something into their hands, without showing anyone and the two of them hadn’t revealed what they were either, just hugged Naruto and thanked him.

Lee’s presents were more varied. Hinata and Hanabi got him a medical kit, Shino got him a set of leg weights, and Kiba had gotten him more clothes to train in. Sakura gave him a blanket that she and her mother had made together. Choji’s family gave him a recipe book that was specifically full of meals that would help him gain muscle. Ino and her dad gave him a cactus. When Lee got worried that he wouldn’t be able to take care of while on missions, she explained it didn’t need much care and she or Naruto could help out if he was gone on a longer mission. Shikamaru’s family got him some kunai and a set of nunchucks. Everyone was a little confused about that one since Lee had never really expressed interest in weapons, but Shikaku just smiled and said, “I thought you might find them useful someday.” His friends all exchanged looks, recognizing that look from Shikamaru. He definitely knew something they didn’t. But given it didn’t seem like bad news, they wordlessly agreed to let it go, at least for now.

Soon after that, everyone started to disperse. Tenten and Lee left early so they could get plenty of rest before meeting their jonin teacher the next morning and Naruto of course went with them. Kiba and Shino and their families also left with them to help carry the presents they had received. Ino left to walk Sakura back to her house so Sasuke found himself walking back with Shikamaru. “They’ll pass,” the other boy said out of nowhere, since the adults had stayed to chat for longer.

“What?” Sasuke responded.

“Their jonin instructor’s test, they’ll pass it,” Shikamaru said. “You do know about that part, right?”

Sasuke nodded, one of his cousins had mentioned it while he was in the room. He figured most clan kids knew about it.

“Well, my dad found out who their jonin teacher is going to be and as soon as he knew their identity, he said we didn’t need to worry about them failing the test. And that that jonin would really help both of them grow. He did say something about it being a particularly interesting team and wondering how their third partner would react, but he was very confident that Lee and Tenten would be alright. So stop worrying.”

“I’m not-” Sasuke tried to protest. Shikamaru gave him a look.

“Hmph.” Sasuke looked away, which caused Shikamaru to laugh. But he was glad that his friends were on the same team. And if Shikamaru’s dad thought they were passed, then they probably would. 

“Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow, right?” Sasuke nodded. Although they had a couple of weeks off of school, their group decided to continue to meet for practice.

Sasuke never realized how much he practiced with Lee until the other wasn’t there. No one else was close to taking him in taijutsu, and most didn’t practice it that much anyway. He practiced with both Hinata and Hanabi but missed having someone to run through sequences with. But he’d just have to get used to it since Lee would probably frequently be gone for missions this year. Besides, he had practiced alone for years, missing one training partner shouldn’t be that much of a problem. 

It was late afternoon by the time they called it quits, and it was obvious everyone was wondering where Lee and Tenten were. They had reported to the academy early that morning to find out their teams and jonin instructors and the test would probably take place soon after that. What test took this long? It was obvious that Naruto was getting concerned and was a few minutes away from having an outburst.

Just as Naruto stood up to start yelling, a position they had all become rather familiar with over the years of knowing him, their friends staggered into view. While he was glad to see them, Sasuke was a bit concerned about their appearance. They stumbled over to the group, leaning on each other. Their clothes were dirty and torn and he could already see bruises forming all over them. When they reached the spot where the rest of them were sitting down, they just kind of keeled over. Tenten landed face down and made no attempt to move, just reaching her hand out blindly until Ino realized what she was after and handed her a water flask. Lee managed to collapse on his back, but didn’t even bother to greet anyone, just gratefully took the water flask Naruto handed him.

Nobody spoke for a little bit, allowing Tenten and Lee the chance to catch their breath. Tenten finally rolled over, made direct eye contact with Hinata, and said, “Your cousin is a jerk.” Hanabi promptly burst out laughing while Hinata frantically apologized and Lee protested that Tenten should not speak badly about their teammate. Well, that answered the question of who their teammate was. Sasuke wondered who put these teams together and thought that would be a good idea.

“Never mind that now,” Ino said firmly. “What in the world happened to you? You look like you went three rounds with enemy nin.”

“That would have been less exhausting,” Tenten muttered.

“Our jonin teacher challenged us to test our resolve and skill,” it seemed like Lee had regained enough energy to speak at his usual volume. “He has recognized our strength despite us not completing that task he laid out for us.”

“He told us he would only take us as a team if we were able to land a hit on him by the end of the day. We weren’t able to, although we got close a couple times. Maybe if Neji would have just freaking worked with us, we might have been able to do it, but no, he’s too good for that. Anyway, you know us, we didn’t give up until our teacher, Gai, forced us to stop for the day. And we thought he was going to send us back to the academy or something, but then he smiled and said we had proven that we were indeed in the springtime of our youths by not giving up and that he looked forward to helping us grow,” Tenten translated for them. “So I guess we’re officially on a genin team now.”

Everyone offered a round of congratulations before Kiba asked the question that was probably on all their minds, “So what’s your jonin teacher like?”

Lee’s eyes sparkled, “He is truly impressive. He is very quick and strong. He evaded all of our attacks without having to use a single jutsu.”

“He’s crazy in the same way Lee is, if not more so,” Tenten said, sounding long-suffering. “I think we’ll learn a lot from him.” Sasuke was uncertain how anyone could be more intense than Lee. He was quite fond of his friend but figured his personality would be unique. “Also, I’m pretty sure he’s been stalking us for several years. Is that something I should be concerned about?” She directed the last part at Shikamaru.

“From what I know about him, no,” Shikamaru reported. “Dad says he’s very strong and very honest, so I doubt he would have any negative intentions. He probably just got interested in you two since I think he also tends to fight using mainly taijutsu.”

“Yeah, but he could recite our workout routines and how they changed over the years, which is a little extreme for just a passing interest,” Tenten commented. Lee, on the other hand, did not seem at all concerned about how much their new teacher knew about them.

“You said he’s like Lee, right?” Shikamaru pointed out. “How did you think Lee would react if he knew there was a jonin who did not use jutsus?”

“He’d learn everything possible there was to know that poor soul and follow them all the time,” Tenten said without hesitation. “Politely and trying his best not to disturb them,” she added when Lee started to protest. Lee nodded after her addition, admitting that that’s what he would probably do.

“So don’t worry too much about it,” Shikamaru advised. “At least you know you have a teacher who can help you with your fighting styles instead of getting someone who specialized in genjutsu or something.” 

Tenten nodded, appeased. They had made their way over to the ramen stand for dinner and then parted ways. And that was the last time Sasuke saw Lee or Tenten for a while. Naruto reported that they were busy either doing simple missions or training with their new team. He also said that Tenten was in no way exaggerating the similarities between Lee and their teacher. Apparently the jonin had invited Naruto, Lee, and Tenten over for dinner one night, saying he wanted to meet the person his precious genin talked about all the time. Naruto said he wasn’t the greatest cook but was very nice and had some good suggestions for their training routine.

It was about a month into their last year of the academy when Tenten and Lee finally got a mission that was above D rank. It was a simple escort mission, C-rank, but they would be away for about four days. Tenten told them all this at the first training session they had been able to attend for a while. They had been given the afternoon off so they could prepare, so they were finally able to see everyone else. 

Lee bounced up to Sasuke and asked if he wanted to have a practice match, to which Sasuke readily agreed. He was curious to see how much Lee had improved in the past couple of months. The answer was a lot. Lee was able to pin him only a couple minutes in. His speed and strength had greatly increased, and his technique had also improved. “You’ve really improved,” Sasuke said, only realizing that that might have sounded insulting when Ino glared at him.

But Lee just laughed, “Yes, Gai has really helped him improve. He is very strong and has helped me develop a routine to optimize my time. And my self challenges have served to motivate me!” Sasuke nodded along. Naruto had explained the concept of self challenges when Kiba had asked him why he had seen Lee walking around the village on his hands. Sasuke thought they sounded a little strange, but they seemed to help Lee, given how much he had improved in the short amount of time he was a genin.

Tenten and Lee seemed excited about their mission, but Sasuke guessed they were also worried about Naruto. As long as Sasuke could remember, the three of them had lived near each. And now Naruto would be alone for several nights while Tenten and Lee would be on a mission they could die on. So he wasn’t too surprised when they shooed Naruto ahead of them as they were leaving. He was surprised when he was the one they asked to look after Naruto. He figured they’d asked Shikamaru or Ino, who were good at understanding people or even Kiba who Naruto spent the most amount of time with.

Tenten had just smiled slightly when he asked her why him, “I think you can understand him in a way no one else can. And he needs that right now.” Sasuke opened his mouth to argue but Tenten continued, “Just make sure he’s eating and hasn’t burned down the apartment building, would you?” And he couldn’t say no.

So here he was perched on a tree outside Naruto’s window on the first night of Lee and Tenten’s mission. And he could see why they were worried. It was almost sundown and Naruto hadn’t eaten. Ever since he got back from training, where he did even worse than usual since he was obviously distracted, he had been pacing around the apartment, muttering to himself. Sometimes he’d sit down for a few minutes but then he’d pop back up again and continue pacing. 

Finally, Sasuke got sick of it and pushed open the window, rolling inside.

“Huh, Sasuke? What are you doing here?” Naruto yelled.

“You’re an idiot,” Sasuke replied, ignoring Naruto sputtering in response. “Shut up before you get noise complaints.” Sasuke pushed past Naruto and made his way into the kitchen. Lee had mentioned they had gone shopping before they had left, so he opened the refrigerator and started taking out what he would need.

He decided to make a stir-fry. That was simple enough and Naruto wasn’t at all picky. Naruto was still yelling in the background, but he ignored him and started chopping the vegetables he needed. When he had most of the prep work done, he turned back to Naruto, “I’ll let you use the rice cooker if you stop asking why I’m here.” That actually made the other boy shut up. Tenten wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t trust him to do anything in the kitchen, was she? What kind of idiot could mess up rice? Apparently this kind of idiot, Sasuke thought, horrified as he saw Naruto happily pour way too much rice for just the two of them into the rice cooker and go to turn it on without adding any water.

He grabbed Naruto and pushed him towards the cabinet he knew the plates were, “I’m revoking your kitchen privileges. Go set the table or something.”

“But you said I could use it,” Naruto whined.

“That’s before you forgot one of the two things you need to make rice,” Sasuke told him. “I can see why Tenten doesn’t trust you.” Naruto kept complaining, but Sasuke just focused on making their meal, used to tuning the other boy out.

Soon it was done, and Sasuke gestured for Naruto to grab some. The two of them sat at the table and ate, without much conversation. Sasuke had expected Naruto to continue prattling on, but he was quiet, glancing out the window frequently. The two of them cleaned up, and Sasuke started to feel even more awkward than usual. He wondered if he should leave for the night.

Just when he was going to say good-bye (or really just nod to Naruto and jump out the window), Naruto said, “They’re fine. I mean Lee has gotten much stronger and he was already really strong and Tenten is even more badass than before with all her weapons and it’s just an escort mission. So they’re fine and they’ll come back.” Sasuke didn’t know what to say. Yes, Lee and Tenten were strong, but as he knew all too well, there was always someone stronger than you out there and sometimes missions just went disastrously wrong. For the first time in basically his entire life, Naruto was separated from Tenten and Lee and if something went wrong, he couldn’t know about it for days afterward. Sasuke remembered sitting by his front door, waiting for Itachi to come home from his missions, despite never knowing what day he would get back. He’d often fall asleep there and wake up back in his bed due to his father carrying him back. 

He didn’t know if it was because Naruto reminded him of himself back then or if he also wanted some reassurance, but he found himself posing the question his mother would ask him when he asked her if she thought Itachi was alright, “Do you believe in their strength?”

“Yes,” Naruto replied without hesitation.

“Then hold on to that and believe they will be strong enough to come back to you,” he said.

“Right,” Naruto cheered. “They’ll be back in no time and I’ll finally get to hear about what going on a real mission is like.” Sasuke nodded, taking some comfort in Naruto’s unwavering belief. “And, Sasuke, thanks,” Naruto told him, smiling. “It’s weird. They never spent the night because the orphanage staff said they couldn’t and they would make them move back to the orphanage if they did, but I’m so used to knowing they are just a floor away that it feels lonely without them.” Seeming to realize how much he had said, Naruto waved his hands wildly, “But I’m completely fine and I’ll see you tomorrow. And beat you.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, used to Naruto’s declarations. And he could just leave, Naruto told him to, but, “Where’s your extra futon?”

“What?” Naruto asked.

“Your extra futon. You do have on, don’t you?”

“Why would I have on?” Naruto protested. “No one would ever use it.” That was a good point that Sasuke didn’t have a counter to so he just glared. But he had committed to this course of action now, and backing down would make him look even more foolish. 

He dug through his pockets until he found the key Tenten had given him before she left, just in case. He was sure they wouldn’t mind if he borrowed some of their bedding, and he would wash it before they got back. So he turned without saying a word to Naruto and headed down to Lee and Tenten’s apartment. He took a few blankets from their closet and grabbed a pillow before returning to Naruto’s apartment. He set up his bedding without saying a word while Naruto continued to stare at him like he had grown a second head.

“Well, are we going to sleep or not?” Sasuke asked once everything was set up. “You’ll need your rest if you want to have any chance of beating me tomorrow.” That got a usually loud response from Naruto and he hurried to brush his teeth and change before flopping down on his bed. Sasuke settled down on his makeshift bed on the floor, resolving to bring a proper futon from his house for tomorrow. They didn’t speak so they both laid there, trying to fall asleep, but Sasuke caught Naruto glancing down at him every so often as if to make sure he was still there. This wasn’t so bad, he decided. He did promise Lee and Tenten he’d look after Naruto and he was sure that they would come home to a destroyed apartment building if he left the idiot to his own devices. Besides, it’s not like he had anyone waiting for him at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I love the idea of Sasuke and Lee being good friends so much, but once I had the idea, it just stuck with me and now I can't unsee it. 
> 
> If anyone was wondering about Hanabi and Hinata's responses to Neji, I figured Hinata would feel really guilty and blame herself for Neji's father's death while Hanabi would focus more on the fact that by Neji's behavior, he hurt Hinata and so have less patience with him even if she does understand where he is coming from.
> 
> Sasuke just like, well if I leave this idiot to his own devices he'll die and that would annoy me and Naruto is very confused about why Sasuke just kind of temporarily moved in with him, but he's a decent cook so Naruto is just kind of rolling with it.


	21. Interlude 5: Mizuki

“Testing will begin at noon tomorrow,” Mizuki read out to his class. “You will have the morning to prepare yourself, but you all must be here at noon or risk losing your chance to demonstrate your skill. There will be a board announcing the order in the hallway when you show up. Each test should take 15 to twenty minutes. Any questions?” Seeing none he motioned that everyone was free to leave for the day, “Oh and good luck,” that’s what a supportive teacher would say wasn’t it?

The students cleared out pretty quickly and Mizuki followed after them, glad to be done dealing with those annoying kids for the day.

“After tomorrow we’re going to be genin and go on amazing missions like Lee and Tenten,” he heard the nine-tails’ container yelling. He barely suppressed his urge to sneer at the childish display. There was no way that brat was going to pass, that demon inside him prevented him from having any sort of control. He looked forward to seeing the look on his face when he failed. He’d be desperate to pass and continue on with his little friends and that would make him so easy to manipulate. Of course, his little friends presented an additional problem. Oh, he knew all about their little practice sessions. They thought they could learn better with each other or by getting one of their powerful parents to help them than they would in his class. And they didn’t bother to pay attention to what he was teaching them anymore. It was unbelievably frustrating. They thought him so weak that there was nothing he could teach him. But he’d show them. He’d make them regret discounting him.

He’d never wanted to be a teacher, but a couple bad reviews from mission leaders and he found himself confined to the village for a time. And he wasn’t going to lower himself to taking some stupid D-rank missions, so he applied to teach at the academy. And he’d been beyond disgusted when the class he was assigned to had that demon in it. Couldn’t he recognize that no one wanted him here? At first it was kind of fun. He could give Naruto bad advice and watch him struggle to master basic techniques, knowing he could just say the boy had misinterpreted what he said if anyone called him on it. And children could be delightfully cruel to each other. So they did so much to hurt the brat without him having to do anything. And then that cursed practice group had formed and suddenly the demon had a ton of friends and the rest of the class wasn’t mocking him like they used to. And even worse, most of the demon's new friends were clan kids, the kids who never had to work for anything and could just skate by on their family’s reputation. They thought they were too good to listen to him just because they knew some fancy bloodline techniques. Well, he’d show them, he’d show them all. 

He decided he’d tell that damn brat after he failed that there was a special test and if he could get that scroll and learn one of the techniques, he’d pass. Although the order was supposed to be randomly selected, he’d make sure Naruto was last so he could plant the idea in his head after his exam and before he saw any of his friends. He’d advise the kid to just make an excuse about being tired or something and then the next time he saw his friends, he would also be a genin. Not that he’d ever see those friends again, but the brat was stupid enough to fall for it. And getting the scroll away from Naruto when he was alone would be easy. It’s not like the brat could actually learn any of the forbidden techniques and from what he had observed over the years, he had no idea that he could access the nine-tails’ power. And then he could bring the scroll to Orochimaru and join him. No one could stop him now. They never realized the threat he was and by the time they did, it would be too late. He’d show them all how powerful he truly was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate Mizuki so much. He's an entitled piece of shit who doesn't actually work for anything and then blames everyone around him for his failures. 
> 
> Sorry it's so short. I couldn't stand writing in Mizuki's voice for any longer, but I needed this to set up the action for next chapter.


	22. Sakura II

“Point, Sakura,” Gai called out as her and Ino broke apart. Sakura let herself grin in satisfaction as Ino narrowed her eyes. Her oldest friend was a tough opponent both because she was a very capable fighter and because she knew Sakura’s fighting style so well. So anytime she was able to land a blow felt good. If she could take on Ino, she could definitely take on their upcoming graduation exam. Ino was eventually able to pin her, but Sakura got a few more blows in before that happened. When Gai proclaimed Ino the winner, her friend roll off her and helped her to her feet, “Good match.”

“Same to you,” Sakura responded, watching the next pair get in the ring. Shino was fighting Shikamaru, which should be interesting. She glanced over to where Tenten and Lee were practicing to check on their progress. It had been surprising a few months ago when Lee and Tenten were able to attend one of their practice sessions and brought their jonin teacher with them. Sakura expected a jonin to have better things to do than help some academy students train, but Gai seemed happy to be there and was a big help. Of course, everyone first had to get over their shock that Gai really was as similar to Lee as Tenten had claimed. Sakura had always thought her friend was exaggerating. Tenten looked very vindicated when everyone kept glancing between Lee and Gai, trying to figure out how that happened. Ino even bullied Shikamaru into asking his dad to confirm they weren’t related, which he did after much complaining and reported back his dad was sure they weren’t. At that point, they all just accepted the universe had created two insanely energetic taijutsu fighters and moved on. The resemblance got even more pronounced once Lee decided Gai was the best jonin ever and started dressing exactly like him. Tenten told them Gai had offered the jumpsuits to the whole team but her and Neji firmly declined. It definitely wasn’t a look Sakura ever wanted to emulate, but it did make her happy to see Lee and Gai in matching outfits around the village, completing crazy self-challenges. Lee had never really had a role model to look up to and go to for advice and Gai happily fulfilled that role. And Gai fully believed that Lee would accomplish his goal, while most adults before never even thought he had a chance.

Sakura didn’t really know many jonin, unlike some of her friends, but she only hoped her jonin instructor would be half as good as Gai. He helped Tenten and Lee come up with training plans that suited their interests and helped them tweak them as needed. He was obviously an incredibly powerful fighter considering he would invite all of them to fight him at once and beat them without using a single jutsu. But what meant even more to Sakura was how he obviously cared for his students and wanted them to succeed. It didn’t escape their notice that Tenten suddenly had way more weapons than she could have afforded herself and they were good quality ones too. Lee had several sets of weights that Sakura knew where not cheap as well. Their apartment now had much more food than before and Tenten never looked worried during shopping trips. Sakura knew that some of that was from the money they were making on missions, but it was obvious that Gai was far more than just their teacher. She was happy for her friends.

And Gai was always willing to help their whole group out. He taught them more advanced taijutsu techniques, refereed their practice matches, and would fight with groups of them so they could practice their teamwork. And the days when both him and Chihiro could go were especially great. The two adults had even done a few practice matches with each other to show them the best way to use various techniques. Although Gai was about as much help as Lee when it came to jutsus, Sakura felt like she had learned more about taijutsu during the few training sessions he had attended than during her entire time at the academy. And Gai was much more supportive and helpful than Mizuki. He didn’t mind explaining things multiple times over and demonstrating until they all understood what was going on.

Although he was willing to work with anyone, Gai spent most of his time practicing with Sasuke, Hinata, Hanabi, and to a lesser extent Naruto and Kiba. Sakura knew that the third genin on Gai’s team was Neji, Hinata and Hanabi’s cousin, so Gai obviously had some experience with their byakugan, although Neji himself never made an appearance. Apparently, on the days Lee, Tenten, and Gai joined them, Gai had given his team the afternoon as a free training session and Neji always chose to practice by himself, usually within the Hyuga compound while the rest of the team would join them. Lee and Tenten would alternate between working on their own and joining in their sparring sessions. 

Watching Gai work with Sasuke was rather amusing. Sasuke always looked so serious even when Gai was holding his shoulder and crying about the springtime of youth. Whenever Sasuke mastered a new move, Gai would pick him up in a hug and usually start crying as well. After the first time, Sasuke didn’t even bother trying to protest, just let Gai hug him until he was satisfied. And despite his protests to the contrary, Sakura suspected he didn’t mind it as much as he claimed. She often found herself looking back on a version of Sasuke she had constructed in her head when she thought she had a crush on him, wondering how she could have got him so wrong. She had thought he was so amazing, with how he was the best at everything and didn’t really associate with anyone in their class. Now that they were actually friends, she still thought he was amazing but for very different reasons. She saw how dedicated he was to training and how hard he worked to increase his skills. She realized that him not talking to anyone in their class was not a sign of how cool he was, but just a manifestation of how terrible he was in social situations. And he was just as obsessed with his and Naruto's little rivalry as Naruto was, he was just quieter about it. Although she wasn’t quite sure if rivalry was the right word anymore because despite both of their claims otherwise, they were obviously friends. 

No one had known how to react when Naruto just mentioned off-hand one day that Sasuke pretty much moved in with him whenever Lee and Tenten were gone, and sometimes stayed the night even when they were in the village. Sasuke was their friend, but he still had a tendency to be rather reserved. She had difficulty imagining he’d just move into Naruto’s place. But Ino had spied on them one time and confirmed Sasuke was staying at Naruto’s place and thankfully taking care of the cooking so they didn’t need to worry about Naruto burning down the apartment complex. She supposed it made a certain amount of sense. Sasuke responded to Naruto more than he did anyone else, even if it was just to hurl insults at him and it was no secret that Naruto was obsessed with Sasuke. Naruto helped bring Sasuke out of his shell and Sasuke helped Naruto focus; they made each other stronger. It soon became obvious which days Sasuke spent in Naruto’s apartment since both boys come to school looking better rested than they would otherwise. Even Kiba knew not to tease them about it because then they’d stop and that wouldn’t be good for either of them.

And the months went on, interspaced with training sessions with Gai, Lee, and Tenten and before she knew it, they were weeks away from their graduation exam and Sakura found herself freaking out. Everyone told her that she didn’t need to worry, that she had the best chakra control in the whole class and did very well academically so she would pass the exams without a problem. But that didn’t stop her from having nightmares of being the only one to fail and have to watch her friends accomplish great things while she was stuck weeding gardens for the rest of her life. Intellectually, she knew she would be fine. Hardly anyone failed the graduation exam. But that didn’t stop her fear from growing every day. And as much as she wanted to talk to her friends about it, she didn’t know how to explain it to them in a way that made them understand. Everyone besides her, Naruto, Lee, and Tenten came from a clan family. They had grown up knowing they were destined to be shinobi and trained from a young age. No one ever doubted their ability to succeed on this path. Even when Hinata’s clan threatened to choose another heir, there was no question Hinata was still going to be a shinobi. So her concerns probably sounded silly to them.

Her anxiety about the test just kept growing and growing, until she found herself using every spare minute to train, like she could quiet her brain by proving how serious she was about succeeding. It didn’t really work and she just found herself growing more tired and scared as the days went by. One night she was practicing late at night, after everyone else had left. She had split from the group when they were leaving from their afternoon training session, claiming her mom wanted her back for dinner and wanted until they were out of sight before sneaking back to their field. She had told her mom she was staying late at Ino’s for a study session, so she had a few extra hours to practice.

She was going through the list of every jutsu they had been taught at the academy, making sure she could perform every single one. 

“Aren’t you tired?” She heard a voice to her left and shrieked, instinctually throwing a kunai in that direction. Luckily Naruto grew up with Tenten and was used to this response, so he easily dodged.

“Oh, hey Naruto,” Sakura waved before realizing what was weird about this situation. “Wait, I thought you went with everyone else for ramen.”

Naruto stared at her, “That was over a two hours ago.”

“Oh,” Sakura had gotten so caught up in her training, she hadn’t realized how much time had passed. She would need to get home soon or her mother would get worried.

Naruto sat down on the grass, gazing up at the stars, and Sakura decided to join him. “Tenten always liked watching the stars,” he told her. “She says that seeing them makes her believe she can accomplish great things, for whatever reason. I mean, Lee and I always knew she would do amazing things but looking up at the stars helps her believe it too. Lee thinks the stars are pretty, but his feet are planted too solidly on the ground to draw any inspiration from them.” Sakura wasn’t sure where Naruto was going with this. He usually wasn’t one to talk around an issue. In fact, Ino frequently complained he lacked any tact whatsoever. “But they’re both well on their way to achieving their dreams and we will too.” Sakura jerked her head up and Naruto kept talking. “I’ve always thought Lee and Tenten were some of the strongest people I would ever met. They never give up and they stuck by me even when it made their lives much more difficult at the orphanage.” This night just kept getting stranger and stranger. Naruto usually didn’t acknowledge how terribly he, and by extension Lee and Tenten, had been treated in the past. “But I think you’re really strong too, Sakura.”

“Me?” Sakura asked, surprised.

“Yeah, you don’t have the sheer power of some of our friends but you never give up. You’re really smart and find ways to turn the situation to your advantage. You constantly lend your support to our friends and encourage them. But you are out here past dark, practicing by yourself because you don’t want to bother anyone with your insecurities. Am I wrong?”

Sakura blushed, not wanting to admit he was right.

“It’s hard to explain to them, isn’t it? That you aren’t just afraid of failing but of proving you never should have tried in the first place,” Naruto said, staring up at the sky. Sakura leaned her head against his shoulder, nodding. She didn’t want to fail because she wanted to become a genin with the rest of her friends, and it was hard to express that to them because most of them never even considered the possibility of failure. But she also wanted to show her mom, Mizuki, and the civilians that tutted at her that she could become a great shinobi. That she didn’t have to settle for becoming a career genin or housewife just because she didn’t possess the sheer power many others did. That’s really why she felt compelled to keep practicing. Because she felt like if she failed she was just proving their point that she shouldn’t have dreamed so big in the first place.

“But you’re going to be great,” Naruto assured her. “Everyone says you have the best chakra control in the whole class and the jutsus we have to demonstrate for graduation don’t require a whole lot of chakra.” It was the same thing pretty much everyone else had told her, but coming from Naruto, who   
understood the true source of her fears, it meant so much more.

“You’re going to do great, too,” Sakura told him.

He let out a little laugh and pulled his legs up to his chest, “I hope so.” Sakura was shocked. She knew Naruto must have some self-doubt, but he usually didn’t let them see it. But he had comforted her, so she would do her best to comfort him.

“I know you struggle with chakra control, but I know you will get there. You can overcome this. Besides, you are too stubborn to falter here. Just like Lee and Tenten.” 

Naruto smiled at her, “Thanks, Sakura.” He got to his feet and offered her a hand up. “You should probably get some actual rest.” 

Sakura let out an embarrassed laugh, “Yeah, I promise I’ll stop these late night sessions. I think they’re doing more harm than good.”

Naruto nodded, “Yeah I better get back as well before Sasuke comes looking for me.” 

As if he had been summoned by the sound of his name, Sasuke appeared in the clearing, glaring at them. “What are you doing out here now?” he asked, annoyed.

“Why? You worried?” Naruto shot back before Sakura could answer.

Sasuke scowled. “No, dumbass. Just wanted to know what you think you are accomplishing. Besides, if Tenten and Lee were here they would have surely tracked you down, so I figured I’d it for them.”

Naruto stuck out his tongue, “None of your business.”

Sasuke looked like he was 2 seconds from tackling Naruto and wrestling him until he told him the reason.

“Sorry, Sasuke. Naruto was helping me with some practice,” Sakura interjected before things got out of hand.

Sasuke turned towards her, “Why would you trust this idiot as a practice partner?” Sakura had to hold in a laugh at Naruto’s indignant “Hey!” in response. “Anyway, you’re too tired for training to be efficient right now. Go home,” Sasuke bluntly told her. Sakura winced and turned to leave. 

"Hey,” Sasuke called out. She turned back towards him, but he didn’t continue right away, seeming to mull something over. “You have terrible chakra reserves but lower-level jutsus don’t require much power. You’re surprisingly good at chakra control so stop being stupid.” 

It took Sakura a minute to process that Sasuke was trying to reassure her in his own, awkward way. She grinned and pulled him into a quick hug. “Thanks, Sasuke. I’ll be fine.” He just stood there for a second before bringing his arms up to pat her on her back.

“Hey, I was way better at comforting you than Sasuke was, I deserve a hug,” Naruto protested. She laughed at that and broke away from Sasuke to pull Naruto into a hug.

“Hey-” Sasuke protested. Sakura cut him off by throwing an arm over each boy’s shoulders and started walking back to her house. They both came along with little struggle. At the intersection where they usually broke off to head towards Naruto’s apartment, she dropped her arms and waved, but they kept walking with her until they reached her house.

“Thanks,” she told them again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She ran inside, fended off her mother's questions about studying with Ino, and collapsed into bed. She slept soundly for the first time in weeks.

And then before she knew it, the day of their graduation exam was upon her. Their group met up for one last training session in the morning, ate an early lunch at Choji’s house, and then headed towards the school.

Sakura was pleased to see that she was one of the first students to go. If she had to wait until the end, that would have only made her more and more nervous. Sadly, Ino was before her so she wouldn’t be there to encourage her right before her exam, but the rest of her friends were after her. She glanced over at Naruto, who was the very last on the list. He was practically vibrating with tensions. Kiba and Sasuke were sitting on either side of him and Akamaru was sprawled out on his lap, demanding pets, which seemed to calm him some.

When her turn came, she stood up, shaking slightly. Naruto gave her a thumbs up and a big smile and all her other friends gave her messages of encouragement. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

For all her stress and fears, her exam went perfectly fine. She was able to complete all the jutsus they asked her to without any problems. Her clone was perfect and her transportation jutsu took her right on top of the X on the floor that was the target. In only minutes, it was over and she had passed. She was then able to pass into the other waiting room, where the students who had completed their exams were to wait for everyone else. She immediately took a seat next to Ino, who congratulated her, and waited for their other friends. 

As time passed, more and more of their classmates filed in. Everyone so far had passed. The rest of their friends gathered around them until the only person they were waiting for was Naruto. But he never appeared. Mizuki appeared and told them the testing was complete and they would proceed to the graduation ceremony. But still Naruto did not show. 

After a few minutes of looking around frantically, Ino strode up to Mizuki and just asked him. When she turned back towards them after their conversation, she looked devastated and Sakura immediately understood what had happened. “He didn’t pass,” Ino reported unnecessarily. 

Kiba immediately wanted to go look for him but Shikamaru said it might be good to give him a little time to himself, plus they did need to attend their graduation ceremony. Sakura had expected to feel ecstatic during her graduation ceremony. She had passed and would become a genin! But although she did feel proud of her accomplishments, she was mainly worried about Naruto. He wanted to be a shinobi so much but he was the only one who didn’t pass. She imagined he’d be held back to Hanabi’s grade and have another to take the tests next year, but still she worried. Besides Hanabi, she didn’t know anyone in the class below them. Hanabi never mentioned any of her classmates besides to say they weren’t a challenge for her. What if they were all awful to Naruto? Hanabi would look after him, but still-there was a lot they could do without her knowing and Naruto would never admit that they were treating him poorly. And they probably wouldn’t have much time to train with him, if their schedules were anything like Lee and Tenten’s. And he probably also felt like he had let everyone down, and she didn’t know how to convince him otherwise. So all and all, she was actually pretty relieved when the ceremony was done.

She met briefly with her parents before mentioning they were planning on having a party at Choji’s house. Both of them declined to attend, saying they had things to get done but they left so she could go, which left her free to look for Naruto. She quickly found under the tree with the swing. Sasuke was seated next to him, not talking but just being there. She approached quietly, not wanting to disturb them. But soon the rest of their friends trickled over and Naruto noticed their presence.

“Hey, everyone, congratulations on becoming genin!” Despite the amount of cheer Naruto tried to inject into his voice, it fell flat.

“Naruto-” Ino started.

“Anyway, we’re still having that party for you guys at Choji’s house, right? I’ll meet you guys over there. I have something I need to do first.” With that Naruto stood up and quickly left the academy. Everyone stared after him.

“He’s probably still upset,” Shikamaru eventually said, but even he didn’t look confident in that assessment. “I’m sure we’ll see him later.” Everyone hesitantly agreed and they made their way towards Choji’s place.

Sakura glanced back at the direction Naruto had gone one last time before hurrying after her friends. It just seemed so out of character for Naruto to do that. She would have expected him to insist on staying with them and being happy for them even if he was devastated. She wasn’t mad at him or anything. He deserved however much time he needed to process, but she was worried that this meant he was even more upset than she initially imagined. 

She ended up falling into step alongside Sasuke, who looked more worried than Sakura had ever seen him. “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” she told him, not sure if she was trying to convince him or herself more. “What sort of trouble could he get into in the village?”

“I’m sure that idiot would manage it,” Sasuke grumbled. And then, “Who’s going to tell Lee and Tenten?” Sakura hadn’t even thought of that. Their team had a mission and were supposed to be back later tonight. Tenten had said they would just meet up with everyone else at Choji’s. They had been so excited. They would be so upset on Naruto’s behalf.

“We’ll figure something out,” Sakura said. She certainly did not want to be the bearer of the bad news.

“And for next year too,” Sasuke said firmly. “That idiot is not allowed to just give up on us.”

“Yeah,” Sakura agreed, “I’m sure he’s too stubborn for that.” Sasuke nodded. Kiba and Shino, who had been walking in front of them, both turned around to voice their approval as well. Sakura still felt worried, but was relieved that all their friends were on the same page. They’d stick by Naruto and believe in him. Right now, that was all they could do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are drawing towards the end of the fic. I think I'll have two more chapters after this- the last one will finally be from Naruto's pov.
> 
> Kakashi is not going to know what hit him when he gets three kids who are used to Gai's teaching style and demand positive reinforcement. Gai's going to run into Kakashi and Team 7 and immediately pick all three of the kids up, with Naruto shrieking with laughter, Sakura giggling, and Sasuke cracking a smile, and Kakashi's just like, what is going on. Is that an emotion?


	23. Shino II

Shino found himself constantly glancing towards the door. And he wasn’t the only one doing so, most of the recent graduates were doing the same. It was their graduation party. Their families were all here celebrating their accomplishments. Hanabi was so proud of her big sister. They were finally becoming genin. But he didn’t feel happy because he knew this next step for them would entail leaving Naruto behind. Shino knew that as a shinobi, he would leave many comrades behind, most in a more fatal way than Naruto, but it still didn’t feel right. Naruto had worked harder than any of them, he had wanted it more than anyone else, but still he was the only one who didn’t succeed.

He didn’t begrudge Naruto the time he needed to come to terms with what had happened, but the later he was, the more concerned Shino felt. Something was wrong. This wasn’t like Naruto. His thoughts kept going back to the day they had saved Naruto from the enemy nin outside the village. Could something similar have happened? Looking around, he guessed most of his friends were having similar worries. Sasuke, in particular, looked ready to leave in a minute to go track Naruto down. Before he got the chance, a shinobi burst through the door.

She handed Shikaku a scroll, told him it was urgent and the Hokage required his presence immediately, and left. Shikaku opened the scroll and looked surprised for a moment before wiping the expression off his face. “Shikamaru, take your friends to your room. Everyone, else this is something we will need your assistance with.” When the newly made genin didn’t move for a second, he said, “Now.” Shino understood why this man was the jonin commander- when he said an order in that tone, he doubted anyone would disobey him.

Shikamaru gestured for everyone to follow him and they trooped along, crowding into Shikamaru’s room.

“What do you think is going on?” Sakura asked.

“Nothing good, if they need all the clan heads,” Ino grimly replied.

“Shush,” Shikamaru said, patting along his wall until he found what he was looking for and pressed his ear against it. Everyone instantly quieted and waited while Shikamaru listened.

A few minutes later he drew away from the wall. “I couldn’t make out everything. The listening system is really meant to be used from the next room, not several doors down, but I was able to make out some things. Someone has stolen a scroll from the Hokage’s office and Naruto is somehow involved. But we need more information than that,” he muttered, pacing back and forth. “Maybe we could get the mission scroll? If Dad had wanted us completely out of the loop, he would have sent us outside, so he might leave it for us.”

“There’s no need for that,” Kiba suddenly spoke. Everyone turned to look at him, surprised. Kiba was not their main information gatherer by any stretch of the imagination. “We’ll just ask someone who was there and so heard everything,” he said, moving towards the door to open it. And as he did, Akamaru came running in. In all the confusion, Shino hadn’t even realized he was gone. Immediately, Akamaru started barking at Kiba while the rest of them wanted impatiently.

“Damn, really?” Kiba yelled, before turning to them and explaining. “So, it’s not just that Narurto’s involved, they think he’s the one who stole it. And it’s not just any old scroll either, it’s the one containing all of the forbidden jutsus of the village.”

Hearing Naruto was involved and maybe in danger, Shino immediately unleashed his tracking beetles to search for his friend, before tuning back into the conversation.

“What are forbidden jutsus?” Sakura asked.

“They’re jutsus that have been deemed too dangerous or immoral to use,” Shikamaru quickly explained. “They are some of the most fiercely guarded secrets of any village because of how dangerous they could be if they got into the wrong hands.”

“And they think Naruto stole them?” Ino asked.

“Yeah, and they seem pretty confident that he is the culprit. Apparently multiple people saw him do it and he used pranking techniques that Naruto has used before,” Kiba reported.

“But Naruto would never,” Hinata protested. “He would never try to hurt the village. He wants to be a shinobi more than anything and he has to know that doing this would prevent him from becoming one.”

“I don’t disagree with you,” Shikamaru said, his plotting face on. “But if someone manipulated him into thinking this would somehow help him become a shinobi and didn’t tell him what the scroll was, it is very possible Naruto would do it.”

“That would explain his behavior,” Sasuke pointed out. “If he thought he could do something that would let him advance with us to genin, he would be more willing to miss celebrating with us.”

“Obviously, we don’t know for sure, but I think this is the most likely theory. And that means we need to find Naruto before anyone else does. If someone that doesn't know him well is the first to contact him, they might hurt him before he could explain what was going on.” Everyone nodded, looking determined.

“Okay, does anyone know where he is?” Shikamaru asked.

Kiba shook his head, “Apparently he headed west after leaving the Hokage tower, but no one knows where he went after that. And he’s not close enough that I can smell him.”

Hinata activated her byakugan, scanning the area, but shook her head. 

“I released my tracking beetles a few minutes ago but they have not yet located him,” Shino told the group.

“Okay, we need to split up,” Shikamaru ordered, pulling a map of the village out of his desk. “If he had left the village, the sentries would have alerted everyone, so he must still be within the walls. If he did take the scroll and is trying to learn something from it, he would somewhere he could practice. Shino and Sakura, you search the woods on the west side of the village. Shino your bugs will help you cover a large area, right?” He nodded, although he had released many beetles, he still had a lot left. “Good, Hinata and Sasuke, look around at our usual training grounds and the surrounding area. He might have gone where he felt most comfortable.” Shino doubted it. Naruto probably didn’t want to be found and he knew that was the first place they would look for him. But it wouldn't hurt to make sure.

“Kiba and Ino, start at the school and try to track his scent. Choji and Hanabi, take the north side of the village and the forest in that direction. I know we aren't covering all of the village, but I think those spots are our best bet.”

“What about you?” Ino asked.

“I’m going to try and track down Mizuki. He is the most likely person to Naruto up to this,” Shikamaru said.

“Be careful,” Ino ordered. It did not escape Shino’s notice that Shikamaru was the only one without a partner and he was the one going after the person who might be responsible for this mess. Shino didn’t think Mizuki was particularly powerful, but he was still an adult shinobi who had survived this long. It would be a mistake to underestimate him.

“We should leave a note explaining the situation in case Lee and Tenten show up while we are gone,” Sakura suggested.

“Good idea,” Ino said, grabbing a piece of paper off Shikamaru’s desk, writing a short summary of the situation, and sticking it to the front door with a kunai.

“Good luck, everyone,” Shikamaru said. “If you find him, try to get him back to Hokage tower, without letting anyone attack him. And be careful. Who knows what kind of trouble Naruto could have gotten into.”

Everyone nodded grimly and split off.

Shino hurried towards the western forest, with Sakura keeping pace beside him. As he ran, he released all but a few beetles and most of his non-tracker insects as well. They needed all the help they could get to cover such a wide area. So far, none of the ones he had sent off earlier had reported back that they had located Naruto. Hopefully, they could find him soon. As they moved through the village, Shino observed more shinobi than usual darting around the roof-tops and reporting to the Hokage’s office. Most of the shinobi in the village must be out looking for Naruto. They needed to find him first.

When they reached the woods, Sakura spoke, “Splitting up would be pointless, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” Shino agreed, “there is no guarantee it would help us find him any faster and if we do run into trouble, we need to provide back-up for each other.”

Sakura nodded and did not say anything further as they traveled deeper into the forest. The sun was going down and soon it would be difficult to see. Shino hoped Naruto would be found before it reached that point.

Neither of them were particularly good sensors, but they tried to see if anyone was nearby. They were not able to find anything, so they kept walking. Calling out for him was too dangerous, so they continued in silence. None of his beetles returned with good news.

Then, after they had been walking for about ten minutes, a beetle that was not Shino's approached them. Shino recognized the chakra signature. It was one of his father’s. It paused in front of his face for a moment before flying off to the right.

“Come on, we need to follow him,” Shino told Sakura before hurrying after the beetle. It led them to a clearing. They paused on the outskirts, peeking around a tree to see what was happening. For a minute, there was nothing, but then Naruto burst into view, collapsing on the forest floor. He started muttering something over and over again. It sounded like, ‘It’s not true, it’s not true.”

Sakura immediately ran to him, while Shino sent any insects he had on him towards the direction Naruto had come from, to see what the threat was. 

“You’re bleeding!” Sakura exclaimed, examining a wound on Naruto’s arm. “What happened?”

“That’s not important right now,” Shino cut in. His insects had just told him Mizuki was closing in fast. They needed to move.

“Naruto, can you move?” Sakura asked, helping him to his feet.

“Yeah,” Naruto said, shakingly before his eyes widened. “It’s Mizuki. He could hurt you. You need to leave.”

Sakura scoffed, “Like we’d leave you when you’re in danger.”

“But-” Naruto protested.

“Hush, let me think,” Sakura told him.

“He’ll be here in less than a minute,” Shino told her.

“Okay. Shino, can you manage a clone jutsu and a transformation jutsu?” Sakura asked. Shino instantly understood what she was planning.

“Yes, although I can only do two clones and I’ll only be about to hold them for about 10 minutes with the transformation jutsu,” Shino told her.

"Hopefully that will be enough,” Sakura said grimly. She also made two clones of herself before transforming them and herself into Naruto. Shino did the same. 

“Naruto, head towards the village. If you run into any shinobi, don’t fight them when they try to capture you,” Sakura instructed. 

“What?” Naruto yelled.

“Later,” Sakura said, pushing in the direction of the village. “Go now.” Naruto left, almost in a daze.

Sakura and him waited long enough to make sure he was really gone and that Mizuki would catch a glimpse of them, before taking off themselves. Shino sent his two clones to the right, with instructions that they should fan out and run in different directions while Sakura sent hers to the left and with a nod, she ran off in the same direction. Shino took off as well. Hopefully, this would be enough to keep Mizuki occupied long enough for Naruto to get to safety.

At first, Shino didn’t hear any signs of pursuit, and thought Mizuki might have headed in Sakura’s direction. Then to his left, he heard a shout.

“Got you, you filthy demon,” he heard Mizuki yell. Before letting out a scream of rage. “Damn another clone? How the hell is this kid making these? He couldn't even manage a single functional one a few hours earlier.”

Well at least he hadn’t caught Sakura, Shino thought, running as noiselessly as possible in the opposite direction. Sadly Naruto’s bright orange jumpsuit was not ideal for stealth. His insects warned him of an incoming kunai, which he was able to dodge. But that forced him to land and Mizuki was upon him.

Shino had never thought of his teacher as particularly scary, but seeing Mizuki coming at him with two giant shuriken, one of which still had Naruto’s blood dripping from it, was more terrifying than Shino wanted to admit. He was able to dodge the first few strikes with little difficulty. Mizuki was obviously mad and he let it affect his fighting style, going for obvious, hard strikes.

But then he took a step back and seemed to evaluate Shino. He smirked and said, “You’re not him, are you? You’re too calm. He was so distressed by what I told him earlier. I don’t know which of his little friends you are, but do you know you are defending the container of the nine-tails? There is no way he won’t eventually turn on you. Is he really worth risking your life for?”

Shino couldn’t help but feel shocked. Naruto was the container for the nine-tails? He had grown up hearing stories of the attack on the village soon after he had been born. Many of his clan members had been killed that night. But that wasn’t important right now. Mizuki could be lying to throw him off, but even if he was telling the truth, that didn’t matter. “Naruto is my friend,” he stated, knowing it was useless to keep pretending he was Naruto. But he didn’t drop the transformation. Keeping his identity and abilities hidden might give him a needed edge. “I don’t care what is sealed in him. He would never hurt his friends out of malice. Instead, he would fight to protect us. So yes, he is worth fighting and even dying for.”

Mizuki laughed at him. “Well, it’s your funeral. I will finish you off here and find him anyway.” With that declaration, he sent the two giant shuriken flying, but unlike before they didn’t go straight for Shino. Instead they curved around the surrounding trees before coming at him from the sides, forcing him to roll to escape. And then Mizuki let loose a slew of kunai at him. He was able to dodge most of them, but took two to his right shoulder. That set the tone for the next several minutes. Shino had to keep an eye on the shuriken curling around him, since insects were not the best at gaging angles and so couldn’t let him know when they would be coming. He focused his insects on Mizuki, so they could tell him when his ex-teacher was launching another attack. However, he struggled to keep up with Mizuki’s attacks, let alone launch any of his own. He had already unleashed most of his insects to search for Naruto and had only kept a few with him. He didn’t have any poisonous ones with him, either. And close range fighting was not his strong suit. So he wasn’t particularly surprised when Mizuki was able to tackle him to the ground and pin him as he attempted to get out of the path of one of the shuriken.

Shino was able to move enough to avoid taking a shuriken straight through his chest, but could not avoid it completely. It sliced open his left arm. And then Mizuki drew back for another blow. Shino did not flinch or close his eyes. He hoped someone might arrive in the next few seconds, but even if they didn’t, he would not regret saving Naruto, even if he died here. He only hoped his friend would not blame himself for Shino’s death. But Naruto had plenty of people to rely on and they would help him through the grieving process, he was sure. 

Just as Mizuki swung a kunai down, someone tackled him off Shino. “You’re not allowed to hurt my friend!” Naruto declared. Shino blinked, thinking maybe the blood loss was getting to him. Because he thought he was seeing about fifty Narutos gathered in the clearing.

“You alright, Shino?” A Naruto came up beside him and helped him to his feet. Shino leaned heavily on his shoulder. This was more solid than a regular clone, he realized. So unless this was the real Naruto that meant…

“That shadow clone technique was real easy,” Naruto said. “Why didn’t you just teach us that at the academy? I got it down in one afternoon.” Shino’s jaw dropped. He had heard of the shadow clone technique and knew just how much chakra it required. He knew Naruto had a ridiculous amount of chakra, but his was absurd. But wait, he remembered what Mizuki had said. If Naruto had the nine-tails sealed inside him and could access its chakra, then his chakra reserves would make sense. But he would worry about that another time. Now he just enjoyed the sight of Naruto completely destroying Mizuki. The man had no idea how to deal with dozens of angry Narutos out for revenge. It was a very satisfying sight. When Mizuki had been soundly defeated, Naruto let the jutsu drop and walked over to Shino. He looked hesitant before taking a seat next to him.

“Thank you, Naruto. You saved me,” Shino told him.

Naruto let out a grin, “No problem. And ah, thanks for coming after me.”

“Of course,” Shino told him. “You are my friend.” That seemed to be what Naruto needed to hear because he completely relaxed. And then promptly passed out, falling onto Shino’s shoulder. He winced and moved Naruto until he was resting in his lap and not putting painful pressure on his wounds. He took a quick inventory and deemed that he would be fine, the wounds were not deep and his insects could not smell any poison from them. He then looked over Naruto and determined he had simply collapsed from exhaustion.

He was not looking forward to trying to get both of them back to the village proper in this condition, but before he could make any plans for that, Gai burst into the clearing followed by a man Shino recognized as Kakashi. 

They quickly took in the scene. Gai moved towards him and Naruto while Kakashi went to secure Mizuki.

“Shino, are you alright?” Gai asked.

“I’m fine,” Shino assured him. “Just a few scratches. And Naruto is alright as well, just tired. He didn’t realize that he was taking a list of forbidden jutsu,” he raised his voice so he could be sure Kakashi could hear him. “Mizuki tricked him into it, told him he could pass if he mastered one of the techniques. Naruto was not betraying the village. That was all Mizuki.”

Kakashi did not say anything but just lifted the unconscious Mizuki up onto his shoulder and headed back towards the village. As he was passing Shino, he asked, “And did he?”

“Did he what?” Shino replied, confused.

“Did Naruto master one of the forbidden techniques?” Kakshi asked again.

“Yes, he did. The shadow clone jutsu,” Shino told him.

“Well that’s very interesting,” Kakashi commented, staring hard at Naruto. “Gai, get them to the hospital. I’ll take him to Ibiki and report to the Hokage so he can call off the search for Naruto.” Gai nodded, gently lifting Naruto off Shino, before laying him on the ground and helping Shino to his feet.

“If you are alright with this, I will go ahead with Naruto. I’ll make sure that anyone who is late in hearing the news does not hurt him,” Gai told him. “I believe some familiar faces will arrive soon to help you.”

Just as he finished saying that, Lee burst into the clearing at full speed and nearly ran straight into Gai.

“Shino, Naruto, you’re alright!” He exclaimed. 

“Fear not, Lee. Your friends are fine,” Gai assured him. “I’m taking Naruto to the hospital. Can you and the others help Shino there as well and then tell the rest of your friends that they can end their search?”

“Of course,” Lee agreed. Gai nodded at them both and then took off, carrying Naruto with him.

Shino didn’t have to wait long to find out who the others were. Soon after Gai left, Tenten and a boy Shino recognized as Neji entered the clearing. Shikamaru followed after them, panting heavily. Shino didn’t bother to protest when Lee asked to pick him up. Both him and Tenten had that stubborn look on their face that told him he wouldn’t get far. Plus he was really tired and he doubted he’d be able to make it to the hospital under his own power.

“I’m going to get everyone else and I’ll meet you there,” Shikamaru said.

“I’ll aid you,” Neji offered. Everyone looked kind of surprised at his offer, but Shikamaru gladly accepted his help.

Shino didn’t remember much past that. He must have passed out sometime on the way to the hospital, because the next thing he remembered, he was waking up in a white bed. 

He glanced around the room and saw most of his friends were gathered there. Sakura was sitting on the ground against the opposite wall, asleep. Her head was resting on Ino’s shoulder. Choji was seated on the other side of Ino, passing her chips occasionally. Kiba had apparently stolen a pillow and was passed out in the corner, with Akamaru asleep on top of him. Hanabi and Hinata were seated nearby, talking quietly. And Shikamaru was seated by his bedside. “How are you feeling?” he asked, handing him a cup of water.

Shino gratefully took it and drank it slowly. He tried to move both of his arms and noticed they had been mainly healed. There was some stiffness and a little pain, but he felt much better. “Alright,” he replied. “Is Naruto awake?”

“Not yet. It’s only been a few hours since they brought you here. The med-nin says he’s fine, just exhausted. He’s in the room next door. Lee, Tenten, and Sasuke are there with him. I’m sure we’ll hear Lee when Naruto does wake up,” Shikamaru remarked dryly.

Shino snorted, drawing the attention of everyone he was awake. Thankfully, they didn’t try to rush him, just gave him waves and smiles. “And they’re fine with everyone being here?” he asked. Usually med-nin were pretty particular about visitors.

“Well, actually we’re kind of being confined here for the time being,” Shikamaru admitted. “No one is really mad at us, or anything,” he assured Shino, “but we have been strongly instructed to stay here while they figure out what all happened and how much they want to tell everybody.” Shino could understand that. It didn’t exactly reflect well on the security of their village that a pre-genin had been able to break into the Hokage’s tower and steal a scroll of forbidden techniques. That information could be dangerous if it got out to other villages. “And since we strongly objected to being separated from you two, the adults just kind of gave up on that and allowed us to stay. There are a couple of jonin guards in the hallway. I’m not sure if they are more there to keep everyone else out or keep us inside and not pulling anymore wild stunts.” The way he said the last phrase made it clear Shikamaru was quoting someone.

“What happened? How did you find us?” Shino asked.

“Well, I looked for Mizuki in all his usual haunts, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.” It did not surprise Shino that Shikamaru had Mizuki’s frequented spots memorized. “I ran into Sasuke and Hinata who reported Naruto was not near the usual practice stop. Then, Ino contacted me to say Akamaru was having trouble tracking Naruto’s scent. A bunch of other Inuzuki had already had the same idea and they couldn’t get close to the academy without getting caught. But they had been able to pick up Mizuki’s scent and he was headed towards the west forest. So we met up with Ino and Kiba and headed that way. We had been planning to split into teams again, but that ended up not being necessary. At the edge of the forest, a small swarm of insects was waiting. They were rather insistent that we follow them. But just before we could, we ran into Lee, Tenten, Gai, and Neji. They were just coming back from their mission, and once we gave them a summary of the situation, Gai sent everyone but me and his team to find specific people or talk to the Hokage. And the insects were able to lead us right to where you guys were. And after Lee and Tenten left to get you to the hospital, Neji went to locate Sakura while I rounded up everyone else. I mainly just had to find Choji and Hanabi. The others had been placed in a storage room after completing the tasks Gai asked them to,” Shikamaru explained the entire situation. “The Hokage agreed that Naruto is not at fault for the situation and he’s not going to charge him with treason or anything. Mizuki is being interrogated now and will be imprisoned after that is done.”

Shino let out a sigh of relief, glad everything ended up alright. And then he realized he needed to share something with everyone.

“Do they think Naruto will wake up soon?” he asked.

“The med-nin said it would be at least a couple more hours,” Shikamaru reported. “Why?”

“Can you get everyone awake and in here? There is something that Mizuki said to me that I think you all should know.”

Shikamaru seemed to be evaluating him, “And you’re sure it’s something you should repeat to everyone?

“Yes,” Shino said firmly. He had considered keeping it to himself at first, but realized it would be better if everyone knew. Based on Naruto behavior when he and Sakura had first come across him, Mizuki had told him. And it made the way the villagers treated Naruto make some sort of twisted sense. Shino doubted Mizuki would lie in that instance, when he thought he was about to kill Shino. Not when he thought the truth would hurt more. And Shino knew none of their friends would change how they treated Naruto over it. But jinchuriki were valuable, and others might come after Naruto for what was sealed inside him. They needed to know, so they could better protect him.

Shikamaru didn't protest any further and soon enough everyone was gathered around Shino’s bedside. And he explained, what Mizuki had said to him, why he thought it to be the truth- Naruto’s insane chakra reserves and the huge secret that lingered around him plus the villager’s treatment of him. 

There was silence for a few moments after Shino finished his explanation and then utter pandemonium insured. Everyone was talking at once, and the noise volume was getting out of control until someone let out a loud whistle. Everyone instantly quieted down.

“Thank you,” Tenten said, “now I know this is a shock, but we need to carry on this conversation in an organized manner. And I do wandt to talk about if we believe it in a minute. But first, is there anyone here who feels like they cannot continue being friends with Naruto after learning this information?” It was said in a lot less confrontal manner than Shino expected. She didn’t even reach for her kunai.

Everyone looked around at each other. Shino had already come to terms with the idea and made his choice, so he watched with anticipation. 

“I don’t care what he supposedly has sealed inside of him, that doesn’t change the fact that he is an idiot who can’t take care of himself and worries far too much about his friends,” Sasuke spoke confidently. Everyone nodded at that, although Ino did mutter something about how he could have worded it nicer. 

“He’s so kind and brave. I can’t believe he would ever try to hurt us or anything,” Hinata spoke up. That got more nods of agreement.

“I’m not going to betray a member of my pack over something he can’t control,” Kiba commented. “Although that does make sense why Akamaru was so afraid of him. I thought he was just being a big wimp.”

Shino was relieved. He truly didn’t think any of them would turn their backs on Naruto because of this, but it was nice to get that affirmation. 

“Well, if that’s settled, let’s move on to whether we believe the information,” Tenten decided. “We know what Shino already told us. And Kiba, you just said something about Akamaru’s reaction to Naruto. Could you explain more about that?”

“Sure,” Kiba agreed easily. “You know how Akamaru can smell people’s strength, right? Well when he first met Naruto, he freaked out a lot. He said that Naruto was stronger than anyone he had ever encountered. And I’ve always noticed that there is a second scent that lingers around Naruto. It’s fainter than his smell, but it smells of a predator. Honestly, the nine-tails being sealed in Naruto would explain a lot.”

“I think it is true,” Shikamaru spoke up. “We know there is a huge secret surrounding Naruto. That it is that he is a jinchuriki would make sense. The village would want to keep his identity a secret. And it would explain how the villagers are both fearful and furious at him.”

And Shino could see that everyone was beginning to accept it was the truth. It did make a frightful amount of sense and if Shikamaru thought it was the truth, it probably was.

“So now what?” Sakura asked. “Should we let Naruto know that we know?”

“No,” Tenten said, “let him come to us. He’s probably pretty deep in denial right now and pushing him will just make him clam up. Just keep supporting him.” 

No one had much more to say after that and Shino could feel himself slipping back towards unconsciousness again, so if anything else was said, he didn't hear it.

The next time he woke up, there was only a single person in his room.

“Your friends have gone home for the night. We got everything straightened out with the Hokage and you aren’t in trouble. And Naruto isn’t either,” his father said, affirming what Shikamaru had already told him. Shino nodded and took the cup of water that was offered to him.

“You knew where he was,” he said quietly.

“Yes, my beetles found him within ten minutes of me learning about the incident. But they also told me that ex-teacher of yours was nearby. And I knew that Naruto would not voluntarily betray the village. But I knew there is enough negative sentiment about him that some people might not listen to reason, even if he was officially cleared of any wrongdoing. So I had to trust that you and your friends would find him and then survive long enough for backup to arrive,” his father explained.

“Thank you for believing in us,” Shino told him. They didn’t need to say more. They both knew things very easily could have gone horribly wrong. 

His father pulled him into a tight hug and he held on tight. He would have died for Naruto, but he was very glad he didn’t have to. 

“I’m introducing you to several more types of poisonous insects and you’ll carry them with you everywhere from now one,” his father instructed him. Shino nodded. That would definitely help him feel more secure.

“The med-nin say that you should be able to check out in the morning and you shouldn’t have any problems beyond some soreness,” his father informed him. He rested his head on his father’s shoulder and listened to him speak about various species he could start cultivating. It had been a far more exciting graduation day than he had expected, but now he felt like he could truly relax. They had proven they would protect each other from what life threw at them. And they would only get stronger from here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really did not intend to have both of major fight scenes in this story to be from Shino's pov, but it just kind of turned out like that. I feel kind of bad that I had Mizuki beating him pretty easily, but Shino's much more of a distance fighter and he had already released almost all of his insects trying to find Naruto so he was at a disadvantage. Plus I needed an opening for Naruto to burst in.
> 
> So yeah, now all the kids know about Kurama. And they are going to be pissed at the village for treating Naruto so horribly over something he had no control over.
> 
> All their parents definitely knew what they were up to. Akamaru may be small, but Kuromaru and Tsume knew he was there and so did most of the other adults. But they knew Naruto wasn't to blame for whatever happened and letting the kids help would lessen the chance Naruto would get hurt by an overeager shinobi and they were now genin, so they trusted them to look after themselves.
> 
> The next chapter won't be out until two weeks. School starts up next week and it's Naruto's chapter so it will be a monster one.


	24. Naruto

Naruto woke up feeling hazy. He couldn’t quite remember where he was. He didn’t think this was his room, it was too bright. But he was so tired so he was about to roll over and go back to sleep before this suddenly recalled the events that led up to this point and sat up, “Shino!”

“Stay down, idiot,” Sasuke appeared in his vision and pushed him to lay back down.

“But-Shino,” Naruto protested. His last memory was passing out on his friend, who was bleeding from multiple wounds. He needed to make sure he was alright.

“He’s just fine. He’s in the room next door and the med-nin say he will be released soon,” Tenten spoke up. Her and Lee were seated in the chairs by his bedside. Sasuke had taken a seat at the foot of his bed and just glared at Naruto when he kicked him.

“Mizuki was captured. You aren’t officially in trouble,” Tenten continued, smiling sweetly.

Uh-oh, Naruto thought, knowing exactly where this was going.

“Now I would love to give you a lecture about how foolish it was to go off on your own and steal something from the Hokage’s office, when if you had just asked on of your friends, they could have told you there was no secret second-chance opportunity,” Naruto sunk lower with each word. When she said it like that, it made so much sense, but he had been so excited to have another chance that he didn’t think it through. 

“But I’ll save that for a little later,” Tenten told him, reaching out to ruffle his hair. “I want to be able to yell at you without feeling bad about it and you currently look kind of pathetic.”

“Hey!” Naruto protested, although he did feel pretty awful.

With the warning given, Lee took that as his cue to gently pull Naruto into a hug, “I’m proud of you,” he said quietly. Sasuke was pretending not to listen, while Tenten had shifted closer.

”But I failed the test and didn’t make genin,” Naruto pointed out.

“You protected your friend," Lee countered. “That is far more important than passing any test. Plus you learned a technique few could.” Naruto let himself lean into Lee’s hug. Lee gave the best hugs. They had always made Naruto feel safe. At the orphanage, not many people touched Naruto. The staff usually either ignored him or yelled at him, and the only time they touched him was to slap him if he misbehaved. The other kids took their cues from them and avoided him as well. But Lee would hug him without hesitation anytime he wanted. When he was curled up between Lee and Tenten in their closet room, seated between them at the dinner table, or climbing their tree with the two of them were the only times Naruto really remembered feeling safe and happy during those years. 

Then Naruto realized he now knew the reason everyone avoided him, and found himself stiffening in Lee’s embrace. He had the nine-tails sealed inside him. He was a danger to everyone. All those villagers had a valid reason to hate him and run him out.

“Naruto?” Lee asked, drawing back far enough that he could look Naruto in the eyes. Tenten scooted closer so she was leaning against Naruto’s side. 

“I’m fine,” he quickly reassured them. He couldn’t let them know. If they did, they might hate him like everyone else and he didn’t think he could survive that. “Just a little tired.” Neither looked convinced, but they didn’t push.

“Everyone else already went home, but they’ll be glad you woke up. They should be back to visit tomorrow,” Tenten told him, gently pushing him so he would lay back down. “They’re all perfectly alright,” she continued before he had to ask. 

Naruto nodded, glad to hear that. “How was your mission?” he asked, desperate to talk about something else.

Tenten gave him a look that told him she knew exactly what he was doing, but went along with it. She talked about their escort mission, with Lee chiming in every so often. Naruto listened to her describe their fight with some bandits and gush about the new sword Gai had bought for her. She promised to show him it when they got to their apartment building.

Naruto guessed it had been around two in the morning when he had woken up. He wasn’t sure how his three friends had convinced the med-nin to let them stay with him overnight, but he was grateful they had. He didn’t know what he would have done if he woke up and no one was there to tell him everything was alright. They spent the rest of the night, chatting about whatever. Tenten told Sasuke way too many embarrassing stories about him from their orphanage days. Lee told story after story about Gai. Sasuke even told them a few stories about his parents, who he hardly ever talked about. Before they knew it, the sun was rising.

Tenten got up and stretched, yawning. “Visiting hours should start soon. Lee and I have to pop out for a bit. We promised Gai we would meet him at the usual time to do some quick debriefing from our mission yesterday that we had been planning to do when we got back to the village last night. But we’ll be back soon and if you promise not to try and leave until they release you, we’ll even bring you back some breakfast.”

Naruto readily agreed and waved them off. Then it was just him and Sasuke.

“You’re an idiot,” he bluntly said. Naruto whined, pulling the pillow over his head so he wouldn’t have to listen to this. Tenten was already going to lecture him later, he didn’t need to hear it from Sasuke too. But that wasn’t enough to stop his annoying friend.

Sasuke just wrestled a pillow away from him, apparently not caring that Naruto was in a hospital bed. (Although he probably would have done the same thing if their positions were reversed.)

But instead of telling him how stupid he was for believing Mizuki, Sasuke said, “We’re not going to abandon you, you know? If we’ve put up with you this long, we might as well stick around.”

“But you’re all going to be busy with actual missions and stuff,” Naruto pointed out, drawing his knees up to his chest. “It won’t be like it was before.”

“No, it won’t,” Sasuke freely admitted. “But have a little more faith in us. We’ll make it work. And anyway, most genin teams don’t get the chance to take the chunin exams until they have been genin for a couple years. I'm obviously going to take them next year, but maybe if you work really hard, you can take them at the same time as some of our friends.”

Naruto, of course, was obligated to smack him for claiming he’d obviously take them next year, but he had to admit, it did help. Even if he had fallen behind for now, he could catch up and they’d be waiting for him.

“Anyway, visiting hours should start soon so wipe that sad look off your face. Everyone will probably want to hear what happened from you and tell you all about what they did to help,” Sasuke urged him.

Sure enough, just as he finished speaking, someone knocked on the door. Naruto yelled for them to come in. But instead of their friends, the Hokage stood in the doorway. Sasuke immediately bolted to his feet, standing between Naruto and the doorway.

But the Hokage just laughed, “It is alright, Sasuke. I am not mad at your friend and have no intention of hurting him. But I do need to speak with him about an important matter, so I must ask you to step out for a little while.” Sasuke glanced back at him, and Naruto made a gesture to shoo his friend out. Regardless of Mizuki’s involvement, he had stolen something incredibly important to the village and could have put a lot of people in danger. He needed to own up to his actions and take the consequences. He hadn't really believed Tenten when she said he wasn’t in trouble. He had been getting in trouble for things he didn’t do for most of his life, now that he had actually done something dangerous to the village, this could be the excuse they needed to get rid of him.

“Those are quite some loyal friends you have there,” the Hokage said after Sasuke had left the room. “I had to suggest to Gai that we needed his report on his team’s mission right away, so he would have to call Lee and Tenten away this morning. I doubt I could have gotten them to leave you alone with me.” He wasn’t wrong. And even if they had been eventually forced out, he knew they would have tried to listen at the window or something. Tenten hated leaving him alone with someone they didn’t know well, particularly if they were powerful. 

“But there were some things I need to speak to you about without any outside interference,” the old man said, taking a seat next to Naruto’s bed. “Now I need you to tell me everything that happened yesterday.”

So Naruto did. He explained how after he had failed his exam, Mizuki had come up to him and told him there was a secret second exam, how he had shaken his friends off and waited until most people had left the tower before setting off some prank traps as a distraction and stealing the scroll. He described how he practiced the shadow clone jutsu until Mizuki had appeared before him and tried to take the scroll from him. He didn’t bring up what Mizuki had told him during the fight, figuring the Hokage already knew what he had inside him and not wanting to talk about it. But he did tell the Hokage how Mizuki had cut him before he was able to get away with the scroll. 

He explained how he had run into Sakura and Shino and that Sakura had instructed him to run towards the village. “I ran for a little bit before realizing what their plan was so I turned around and went back. And then-”

“Why?” The Hokage broke in.

“Why what?” Naruto asked, confused.

“Why did you go back? You knew it would be dangerous and that if people discovered you near the fight, they might think you were to blame for whatever happened,” the Hokage said.

“That didn’t matter,” Naruto yelled. “I knew Shino or Sakura was in trouble because they were trying to help me. I couldn’t just abandon them. And I didn’t know when back-up would arrive. So I had to make sure that they were safe.”

Naruto glared up at the old man, who met his gaze steadily. “Of course, please continue.”

Naruto huffed, but did as he had instructed. He described the fight between him and Mizuki and how he used the technique he had learned from the scroll. “And then I passed out and woke up here,” Naruto concluded.

The Hokage sat in silence for a few minutes. “That was quite the adventure you had. I’m guessing you now know that there is no hidden second exam.”

“I know, I know,” Naruto grumbled. He didn’t have to rub it in.

“But I think in this case I can make an exception,” the Hokage continued.

Naruto’s head shot up, “You mean…”

“You demonstrated bravery and a fierce loyalty to your village and your friends, if not good sense yesterday. You have mastered a technique that few ever will. I think it would be short-sighted of me to prevent you from advancing just because you struggled with the specific jutsus you had to demonstrate for the graduation exam. And so,” he drew out the forehead protector that Naruto had longed to wear for as long as he could remember from his robes, “congratulations, Naruto Uzumaki, you are now officially a genin of Leaf. I trust you will do the village proud.”

Naruto took the headband with reverence. “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”

He couldn’t quite decipher the expression on the old man’s face, “I have no doubt that you won’t,” he said. “Well, I must take my leave now. Plus I’m pretty sure your friends are going to try and break down the door if we do not let them in soon.”

Sure enough, when the Hokage opened the door, Naruto could see his friends arguing with the jonin that must be the Hokage’s guards. The old man laughed, “Let them through now. Their friend has some big news for them.” He nodded to Naruto and then walked down the corridor. 

As soon as he was gone, his friends came pouring in. Everyone was there. Tenten and Lee had apparently gotten back from their debriefing and even Shino was there, looking slightly uncomfortable but otherwise alright.

“What did the Hokage want with you?” Kiba asked, climbing on to Naruto’s bed and lifting Akamaru up into Naruto's lap.

Naruto proudly held up his new headband, “I’m a genin!” Everyone was silent for a moment before they all started yelling congratulations and questions over each other.

Naruto didn’t even try to pick out everyone’s individual voices, just let their excitement and praise wash over him. And he couldn’t help thinking that maybe now he could start paying them back for everything they had done for him. Naruto knew he wasn’t the smartest. He was lucky if he got half the answers on his homework right if he worked by himself. But he did understand people. It was a skill he had honed when he was a lot younger. He needed to understand people in order to know when the glares he got were just the regular kind and when they meant he needed to run as quick as he could and hide from whoever was looking at him before they tried to hurt him. He had never been able to figure out what he had done to earn everyone’s hatred. At least that was one mystery solved. But that meant he didn't miss everything his friends had done for him over the years.

His eyes sought out Lee and Tenten, his first friends. It was no surprise that Lee was crying, but Tenten had tears in her eyes as well. They were hugging each other and jumping up and down in excitement. The first few times Lee and Tenten came back with scrapes and bruises from fighting the other kids at the orphanage for badmouthing him, he begged them to stop. He wasn’t worth them getting hurt over. But they were both so stubborn. Eventually, they settled on an unspoken compromise where Lee and Tenten did what they thought was necessary and then let Naruto patch them up afterwards and try not to get into any other fights for at least two weeks. Even though he hated seeing them hurt, he couldn’t bring himself to try and push them away so they would stop caring and stop getting hurt because of him. No matter what happened, they were always there, supporting him. Naruto couldn’t imagine living in his lonely apartment without them constantly coming over to check on him and cook. When they had graduated and become genin, he had given them carvings of the tree in the orphanage grounds where he had first met Lee and where they had spent hours climbing and playing. They weren’t very good carvings. He had mentioned to Teuchi what he wanted to do and he had introduced Naruto to a friend of his who was good at carving wood. She had given Naruto plenty of tips and helped him as much as she could, but Naruto insisted that he needed to be the one to actually carve them. Naruto was honestly surprised they had been able to recognize the end result as a tree, let alone know exactly which one it was. But they did. And the next time he went over to their apartment, the carvings were displayed front and center on their mantle. It couldn’t even begin to pay them back for all they had been for him, but it still made Naruto feel warm to know something he had made brought them happiness. And now they were all on their way to achieving that dream that had spoken of in awed whispers in their broom closet room all those years ago. Naruto couldn’t wait to see Lee become a great shinobi even without chakra and prove everyone wrong and for Tenten to master more weapons than he even knew existed and become as great as Tsunde. 

His eyes drifted over to Shikamaru. The lazy boy wasn’t as expressive as some of their friends, but he had a broad smile on his face and didn’t even seem to be complaining about Ino screaming in his ear. Naruto knew that Shikamaru had been the driving force behind most of the things his friends had done for him over the years. Shikamaru was the only one of his friends who would have developed a long-term plan and carefully strategize what actions would be the most helpful. Naruto figured that there were some things that they did for him that he would never know about, but every time he was able to go into the marketplace without being turned away or yelled out, he felt a rush of thankfulness for Shikamaru and his plotting. Naruto usually wasn’t one for quiet, but occasionally he would lay next to Shikamaru and watch the clouds and a sense of peace would settle over him, knowing Shikamaru was there. He was sure Shikamaru was going to be a great shinobi despite all his complaints about training being troublesome.

He next sought out Kiba’s happy face. His friend was yelling with joy, with Akamaru barking from Naruto's lap. Kiba was the first friend Naruto had made at the academy. He had as little patience for book learning as Naruto did and was always willing to wrestle or goof off. He had been so afraid that that would all end when Akamaru freaked out the first time he met him. But Kiba had displayed more patience than Naruto had ever seen from him, slowly getting Akamaru used to Naruto’s scent and presence. The first time Akamaru had crawled into Naruto’s lap without any prompting, Naruto had nearly cried with happiness. And Kiba hadn’t stopped there. He helped all of the dogs in the Inuzuka compound feel more comfortable around Naruto. Naruto didn’t know much about clan practices, but he did notice that very few outsiders were trusted around the puppies who hadn’t been assigned partners, but Kiba had introduced him to them without hesitation. Naruto could never express to Kiba how much that trust meant to him, but he would do everything in his power to show him how grateful it was.

He let his eyes get drawn to Ino who was still screaming. Naruto might consider himself pretty good at reading people, but he had nothing on Ino. She could effortlessly command a room with just a few words. He figured she was behind the change in how their classmates treated him. He never made great friends outside their group, but no one insulted him to his face or refused to work with him after Ino had stepped in. She would also bring Naruto flowers every time Lee and Tenten went away on a mission. Each time the flowers she brought were supposed to last slightly longer than their mission was. So Naruto would know when they started to wilt, his friends would be back soon. It helped their departure feel less final. Ino was already a force to be reckoned with, but Naruto couldn’t wait to see what she would accomplish as she learned more techniques.

Sakura was standing on Ino’s right side, jumping up and down and laughing with delight. Naruto had thought he had a crush on her at first. She was so nice and pretty. Even if she didn’t pay him any attention in the beginning, he focused a lot of his attention on her. When she had started hanging out with him, Naruto realized she was more than he had imagined her as. Yeah, she was still nice and pretty, but she was also surprisingly good at arm wrestling, could yell almost as loud as Ino, and had her own insecurities. As Naruto grew closer to her, his feelings for her changed. Or maybe he never really had a crush on her in the first place, just wanted to be her friend. He would rather practice with her than try and kiss her or give her flowers. He appreciated how she would explain chakra concepts to him over and over without getting impatient, and she understood his concerns better than most of her friends, so she was really easy to talk to. He decided he liked their relationship the way it was, besides Ino gave much better flower bouquets than he ever would. He had never doubted that Sakura would pass the graduation exam and was eager to see what she could do once she finally got a teacher who saw her talents.

Choji was standing on Shikamaru’s other side, smiling widely. Naruto had received food from people before, like all the meals he had been given at the orphanage, but he never saw anyone who was so happy to share food before he met Choji. He was used to being treated as a burden, but Choji never made him feel like that. He was also so excited to share food with Naruto and eager to hear his opinion on it. And that generosity extended to even sharing his parents with Naruto, Lee, and Tenten. When Chihiro first started training Lee and Tenten regularly, Naruto knew they had been cautious, not wanting to overstep bounds and upset Choji. But that never became a problem. Even with all the time Chihiro spent helping them and all the meals they all spent at Choji’s place, he never started to resent them. In fact, he said he was happy they were there. And once they had relaxed, it had been amazing. Choza would ask all of them how their days went and listened to all their stories. Chihiro would say how much Lee and Tenten had accomplished, since they would never brag about about themselves. And after dinner, Choza would tell them stories about battles he had fought in or clan stories passed down for generations. It wasn’t uncommon for them to fall asleep on the sofa and wake up the next morning in one of their guest rooms. Naruto wondered if this was what kids with normal families felt- secure and safe with the knowledge that someone would be there for them no matter what. Choji had the biggest heart of anyone Naruto knew and Naruto trusted that would never change.

Hinata and Hanabi had stationed themselves close to the window. Naruto honestly hadn’t expected anything to come of helping Hinata when they first met. She was in trouble so he helped. But that had never helped him make friends before. Naruto always had trouble understanding why Hinata was so hesitant to speak her mind. He was used to people hating him, so he just said and did whatever he wanted. But he gradually came to realize how afraid she was of messing up and disappointing her clan. Personally, Naruto thought that if her clan was disappointed in her, they were fools. Hinata’s strength wasn’t as obvious as Sasuke’s or even Ino’s, but it was there. She would do anything for her friends and didn’t back down when tough challenges arose. Naruto hoped one day she would be able to see herself the way he saw her- as one of the bravest and kindest people in the whole village.

He knew Hanabi, at least, agreed with his assessment of her sister. Although he was glad he was moving on to being a genin with most of his friends, he was kind of sad he was missing the chance to get to know Hanabi better. She had been coming to their sessions for years, but they didn’t talk by themselves all that much. But Naruto was sure she would accomplish great things once she became a genin and he looked forward to being able to tell her his mission stories, like Lee and Tenten had told him theirs. 

Shino had seated himself in the only chair next to Naruto’s bed. He wore a small smile. Naruto took the glance to give him a critical lookover. He was relieved to see that everyone had been telling him the truth and Shino looked fine. He held himself a little stiffly, but could move both his arms just fine. Naruto had always thought Shino was cool. He had a bunch of bug friends that he got to carry around with him and who would help him fight. But Shino was so quiet, Naruto didn’t want to bother him too much by asking him a bunch of questions about his insects. That changed after Shino helped rescue him from the enemy nin. When Naruto asked him a few questions about his insects in the days after the rescue, Shino had eagerly explained about them. So Naruto figured Shino liked talking about them, just didn’t know to start up conversations, which was fine, Naruto could do that enough for both of them. After that, he made it a point to talk to Shino whenever he got the chance. He didn’t like to fight against Shino, unless it was a taijutsu match because he didn’t want to risk squishing the insects Shino cared so much about. When Naruto told him that, Shino had let out the first smile he had ever seen from him and thanked him. Shino had saved him twice over now. Nearly died for him just yesterday. Naruto would have to thank him, even if he knew Shino would tell him it wasn’t a big deal. Naruto had spent many years wondering if anyone beyond Lee and Tenten would miss him if he died. And now he had multiple people who were willing to risk their lives for him. He was so overjoyed to have his friends, but he never wanted to be the reason they got hurt. So he would just have to get stronger so he could protect them like they had protected him. Shino would get stronger too, Naruto was sure. He mentioned his dad was going to introduce him to new species after he graduated. They probably wouldn’t have the chance to spend as much time together as before, unless they got placed on the same genin team, but Naruto would make sure to take the time to seek Shino out so he could introduce Naruto to all his new insects. It was the least he could do to show his friend how much he cared for him.

And Sasuke, who had returned to his seat at the foot of Naruto’s bed. Sasuke had been Naruto’s goal for as long as he could remember. The other boy seemed to effortlessly succeed in everything he did and it pissed Naruto off. Everybody liked Sasuke too, which Naruto realized was part of the reason he focused on the other boy so much. Maybe if he was as capable as Sasuke, people would like him too. But it was more than that. Even when Sasuke insulted him or effortlessly beat him, he still acknowledged Naruto as his rival, in a way. And for Naruto, who was usually treated like a bother or explosive tag about to go off, having someone see him for what he was meant so much. And then when Sasuke started attending their training sessions, Naruto saw how much work he put into everything he did. He practiced almost as much as Lee, which was saying something. But Sasuke was still his rival, first and foremost, and Naruto put everything he had into beating him. And he would do it one of these days! 

The first time Sasuke had planted himself inside Naruto’s apartment and refused to leave, Naruto was so confused. The orphanage’s matron’s warning echoed in his ears, but he shook that off. They wouldn’t be taking him back in any time soon, so there was no real reason to kick Sasuke out, besides the fact that Naruto didn’t understand why he was there. Not that Sasuke was in any way useful in answering that question, but Naruto eventually gave in. Once he got over the strangeness of the situation, he found he didn’t mind having Sasuke over. He could cook, for one. And if Naruto had excess energy, he could goad Sasuke into a wrestling match until the lady downstairs yelled at them. And if Naruto woke up from that nightmare, Sasuke would be there. The nightmare was one Naruto had had for as long as he could remember. More and more people appeared over the years, but it was the same every time. All the people he loved would be with him and then they would disappear one by one and he would wake up terrified that they were gone for good. When he, Tenten, and Lee all slept in the broom closet together, it had been easy to reassure himself that they were fine. But later, he would have to wait until school to see everyone. Having Sasuke there helped convince his brain it wasn’t real and Naruto could usually fall back asleep. Sometimes when he couldn’t, Sasuke would wake up and sit with him until they had to leave for the academy. Naruto would do the same when he woke up and Sasuke was wide awake, usually backed into the corner, staring blankly out at the room. Naruto would miss all his friends once they couldn’t see each other as often because they were busy with genin missions, but he secretly hoped he would be on the same team as Sasuke. The other boy pushed him to be the best he could be, and Naruto hoped he helped Sasuke in the same way.

“Well it’s a good thing we never finished the party,” Ino commented once everyone had calmed down. “Now we can finish it with all of us there.” They all agreed to that, scheduling it for tomorrow night. The med-nin said Naruto would be released that evening, but it was nice to have the night to rest, and probably give Tenten the chance to get her lecture out of her system. And then the day after the party, they would get their genin team assignments.

Most of his friends decided or had to leave soon after that and Naruto took the chance to nap more. He really was exhausted. 

Later that night, as he lay in his own bed, he found he couldn’t sleep. He had endured Tenten’s lecture, which wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, even if she did call him any idiot ten times in under two minutes. Sasuke had gone back to his house for the night, so Naruto had no one to entertain him. Finally, he plucked up the courage to do something he had been considering since Mizuki had told him about the nine-tails.

“Hey, are you there?” he whispered poking his chest slightly to see if that would get a reaction. No answer. “I know you’re there now. Can you respond to me?” Still nothing. Naruto sighed and rolled over. He wasn’t even sure he wanted something to happen. This thing inside him had killed tons of villagers and was the reason everyone hated him. So he really should be glad the fox didn’t feel like talking to him. But he wanted to know more. Why had he been used as the container for it? Did the nine-tails see everything that he did? Is the fox why he had so much chakra but was so bad at chakra control? Who had been the jinchuriki before him? Did they struggle like he did? Naruto would readily admit he had little idea how the more complicated seals worked, leaving that to Tenten. But he needed to understand something about his seal and didn’t know how to get that information. Could the fox influence his actions? Would it eventually be able to break out of him? Was he the danger all those villagers saw him as?

But the night held no answers and Naruto woke up the next morning feeling groggy and unsure. His friends didn’t let him stay like that for long though. Ino burst in as he was finishing breakfast to drag him out on a shopping trip for the party. And after that, Choji roped him into helping with decorations and taste testing and before he knew it, the time for the party had arrived without him having a spare minute to sink into worrisome thoughts. 

And this party was even more fun than Tenten and Lee’s had been. Gai attended this time as well, picking Naruto up and crying over him and how proud he was. No one mentioned Mizuki or the scroll, just congratulating Naruto on becoming a genin.

Lee and Tenten presented Naruto with a set of kunai that had their tree carved into them. Gai had gotten Naruto a set of weights. Ino and her dad gave him a book on how different plants could be used for healing or poisons. Choji’s family gave him a couple long daggers. “I know you don’t use a lot of weapons, but they’re good to have in a pinch,” Chihiro told him. Shikamaru’s family gave him a custom pack that contained more storage than the standard issue ones. “So you have somewhere to store snacks,” Shikamaru commented. Kiba and Tsume gave him a carved dog statute, which Naruto thought looked like the trouble-maker of this generation of puppies. Tsume also told him he was welcome to stop by the clan compound anytime. Hinata and Hanabi got him a book detailing the exploits of the Fourth Hokage. Naruto didn’t know why, but he was always fascinated with the man and gleefully flipped through it. Sakura had gotten him some more practice clothes, in his favorite orange. Shino gave him a plant that he told him would attract many different types of insects and promised he would help Naruto identify the ones he saw. Sasuke got a book of recipes. “I’m not saying I trust you in the kitchen yet, but I can make all of these and I guess I can show you how to do it or whatever.” 

Naruto left the party on Lee’s back, stuffed and so excited for the next day. He woke up before his alarm even went off the next morning, eager to learn who his team would be. Some teacher Naruto had seen around but didn’t know the name of was the one who read off their assignments. Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru were on a team together, which wasn’t a surprise. Hinata, Kiba, and Shino made up another. And finally after reading off multiple other teams, the teacher said, “Team seven will consist of Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha.” Naruto grinned at his two friends. They were going to be the most kickass team of all time. 

That is if their jonin teacher ever showed up. The jonins for all the other teams had come and gone and now it was just the three of them in the classroom. Naruto had gotten bored about two hours ago and had been bugging Sasuke for a wrestling match or something ever since. But no, Sasuke said there wasn’t enough space and it would make a bad impression on their jonin teacher. Well, it’s their own fault for being so late. Naruto was now sprawled out with his head on Sakura’s lap and kicking his feet at Sasuke, complaining about how unfair it was. “Get over it, idiot. I’m sure they’ll turn up soon,” Sasuke told him, unimpressed. And even Sakura was laughing at him!

Finally, the door opened and a man Naruto vaguely recognized came in. “My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I’m your jonin teacher. Meet me at dawn tomorrow at training field ten. I’ll test you then. Oh, and I would advise against eating anything tomorrow morning. You’ll just throw it back up.” With that, he left.

The three of them were silent for a minute, digesting his words. “No fair,” Naruto complained, “why does our jonin teacher have to be an asshole? Couldn’t we get someone like Gai?”

“Maybe he’s just bad at first impressions?” Sakura offered hopefully, although she didn’t look very convinced.

“What do you think the test is going to be?” Naruto wondered. Lee and Tenten had told him about the second test last night, so he would be prepared.

“Who knows,” Sasuke said, “and it doesn’t matter anyway.” Naruto opened his mouth to argue about that, but Sasuke continued on, “Because no matter what we’ll pass it, right?”

“Yeah,” Sakura confirmed, “after all, we’re too stubborn to fail here.”

Naruto grinned at the familiar statement. “Of course! We’ll show him how amazing we are!” He yelled.

They left the classroom soon after that, deciding to get as much rest as they could before tomorrow. Naruto didn't know what to expect from tomorrow or the day after that. But there was one thing he was sure of, with his friends by his side he could accomplish anything. He’d show everyone just how much he could do for the village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done! I can't believe how long this fic got, but we have reached the end. Thank you everyone who has made in this far. I always love reading your comments. I have a third fic planed for this series, describing the chunin exams, but before that I'm going to take a break from this series and write a one-shot involving team Gai.
> 
> This chapter got so cheesy, but honestly I don't regret it. Naruto deserves the chance to just appreciate his friends and have them appreciate him. The little descriptions of each of his friends felt kind of heavy-handed, but I didn't know how else to do it, so oh well.
> 
> Throughout the chapter, Naruto makes several references to paying his friends back or showing the village what he could do. Of course, all his friends would argue he didn't owe them anything and they want to help him, but he still has trouble accepting how much they care for him. And even in canon, Naruto defined a lot of his self-worth, in my opinion, by how the village viewed him. His friends are amazing, but they can't completely fix the damage the village's treatment has done to him. But they'll be with him every step of the way until he learns to value himself.
> 
> Thanks again for reading and I hope to see you later!


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